Washington

When to plant garlic in Washington

Washington plants garlic on two clocks. East of the Cascades the ground freezes shut and the date is counted back from it; west of them the winter is wet rather than cold, and the bed's drainage decides whether a clove roots or rots. Test the bed, then take your side of the state's window.

Check my garlic forecast Find your side of the state

Last updated: 2026-10-16• Sources

The short answer

Where	What decides it	When to plant
West of the Cascades	1–3 in/hourThe drainage rate a bed wants	Late October into November
East of the Cascades	4–6 weeksLeft before the ground freezes	Mid-September into November
What goes in the ground	A clove, not seed, set root end down with two inches of soil over the top, four to six inches apart, and certified seed stock rather than a supermarket bulb.

A rain-wet raised garlic bed with cloves set in dark soil, water standing in the furrow beside it and mist over a conifer treeline behind.

Your planting date depends on which side of the Cascades the bed is on. West of the mountains the limit is water: the state's fact sheet puts western Washington in November, the Skagit and King County programs plant in October, and a bed that drains badly fails in any of those weeks. East of them the limit is the ground freezing shut, and the state's crop profile sets the planting at least four to six weeks before it; Yakima County words that season as October 1 to November 15, and its own first hard frost lands in mid-to-late October, in the middle of it.

01
The state's own fact sheet gives Washington two garlic seasons rather than one: early to mid-fall, September to October, east of the Cascades, and late fall, November, west of them.
02
The western month is written three ways. The fact sheet says November, Skagit County calls late October the best of it, and King County plants in October; the state's crop profile also lands on November.
03
Drainage is the west side's real limit. WSU's percolation test wants 1 to 3 inches of water an hour, and Skagit County's warning is that too much moisture rots the seed.
04
The first frost is not the cue on either side. The eastern interval is counted back from the ground freezing, and Yakima's planting window straddles the first hard frost it publishes.
05
Winter cover is two jobs: 3 to 4 inches at planting for the west side's rain, and 4 to 10 inches from mid-to-late November on the east side, where freezing and thawing lifts cloves.

The divide at the Cascades

A bed that has to drain, or a ground that freezes shut

The fact sheet gives the two halves of Washington separate seasons, and the county programs word each side differently again. What does not change across the state is the clove: the same depth, the same spacing, and the same need for roots before the ground shuts it down.

Western Washington

Late October into November

1–3 in/hourThe drainage rate a bed wants

WSU's percolation test calls 1 to 3 inches of water an hour acceptable for garden plants, about 2 inches an hour ideal, and anything under 1 inch an hour too slow. Skagit County states the same limit from the crop's side: too much moisture and the seed will rot. Cold is not the west side's problem.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221); Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, Growing Garlic, September 2025.

Who this covers: The lowland gardens from the coast through Puget Sound, which is the ground the fact sheet's western season and both county programs describe. The fact sheet does not name a dividing line between the two, so the useful one is the mountains rather than a county border.
What goes over the cloves: 3 to 4 inches of weed-seed-free straw, or chopped straw and shredded leaves, put on over the finished bed. It is there for rain and erosion rather than deep cold, and it comes back off in spring.

Three west-side publications give three dates. The fact sheet says November. Skagit County says late October, with earlier and later both workable and spring as the last resort. King County says October, a few weeks before the ground freezes. The state's commercial crop profile agrees with the fact sheet and adds a very early spring window in March. The bed underneath is what they agree on: full sun, ground that drains, and compost worked into the top six inches.

WSU Extension, Vegetables: Growing Garlic in Home Gardens (FS162E); Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025; King County Master Gardener Foundation, October 2024; USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001.

Eastern Washington

Mid-September into November

4–6 weeksLeft before the ground freezes

The crop profile gives the interval itself: softneck and hardneck garlic both survive eastern Washington's harsh winters when the planting is done at least four to six weeks before the ground freezes. Yakima County words the same season as October 1 to November 15, and dates the first hard frost, below 28°F in the air, to mid-to-late October.

USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001; Yakima County WSU Extension, Time to Plan and Plant Garlic, October 2026.

Who this covers: The Columbia Basin, the Yakima and Walla Walla valleys, the Okanogan and the Spokane area: ground that freezes shut in winter. Yakima County's program is written for the shrub steppe, and the crop profile records the state's commercial acreage growing on this side.
What goes over the cloves: 4 to 10 inches of straw or pine needles, put on in mid-to-late November once the ground begins to freeze and pulled back as the tips come through.

Three eastern readings, in the order they were written. The fact sheet plants September to October. The crop profile's commercial growers plant mid-September to mid-October and date their interval from the ground freezing. Yakima County plants October 1 to November 15, and its reason for the later end is the one the crop profile also gives: the clove has to set down roots and then go dormant, and Yakima says that dormant period is what stops the plant making leaves and starts it forming a bulb.

WSU Extension, Vegetables: Growing Garlic in Home Gardens (FS162E); USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001; Yakima County WSU Extension, October 2026.

Before a clove goes in

Test the ground, not the calendar

A bed that holds water is the one planting condition a date cannot fix. The check is a hole, a ruler and fifteen minutes of waiting.

The test WSU publishes

The percolation test

01Dig a hole one foot square and one foot deep, and put the soil aside on a tarp or in a bucket.
02Fill the hole with water and let it drain away.
03Refill the hole and measure the depth of the water with a ruler.
04Wait fifteen minutes, measure how far the water has fallen, and multiply that number by four. The answer is the rate in inches an hour.

The publication lists three fixes: work organic matter into the soil, choose plants that suit the drainage you have, and build raised beds for control over the soil. For a garlic bed the second one means growing something else, which leaves the compost and the raised bed.

1–3 in/hour

Fits a garden bed

WSU's publication calls this range good for garden plants with average drainage needs, and about 2 inches an hour ideal. A bed reading here can take garlic with nothing more than compost and the usual preparation.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221).

Under 1 in/hour

Too slow to plant into

Below 1 inch an hour the same publication calls the drainage too slow and offers two ways out: improve the soil, or plant something that tolerates wet ground. For garlic the second option is a different crop, and Skagit County's warning is that a clove left in this ground rots.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221); Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025.

Over 4 in/hour

Drains freely

Above 4 inches an hour the publication calls the soil quick-draining and points to drought-tolerant plants. Organic matter is the fix in this direction too: it holds moisture a coarse soil would otherwise let drain away.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221).

Garlic spends the winter underground, and WSU's percolation test measures how fast water leaves the ground it will sit in. Skagit County describes what the slow result costs: too much moisture, and the seed rots.

Run the test in the bed the cloves are going into. Two beds a mile apart can drain very differently, and a bed that looks workable on top can sit above a layer the water never leaves.

What to do when the water will not go

Work compost into the top six inches

Skagit County's bed preparation works compost into the top six inches for the loose soil a root crop needs, and WSU's first drainage fix is the same material: organic matter opens a heavy soil and holds water in a sandy one.

Raise the bed, or move it higher

A raised bed is WSU's third fix, and for a wet garden it moves the crop onto ground with its own drainage rather than draining the whole plot.

Keep onions and leeks out of it

Garlic, onions and leeks should not follow one another in the same ground for three years. That matters more on the west side, where the crop profile describes wetter conditions and more disease pressure than the eastern valleys carry.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221); WSU Extension, Vegetables: Growing Garlic in Home Gardens (FS162E); Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025; USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001.

The winter cover

Mulch at planting, or wait for the ground to freeze

The depth and the moment are what the two sides disagree about, and both counts end up as ground the shoots have to cross in spring.

Every Washington source covers a fall planting, and no two of them do it at the same moment. The fact sheet spreads 3 to 4 inches of weed-seed-free straw over the bed as part of the planting, for protection from cold damage through the winter. Yakima County waits until the ground begins to freeze in mid-to-late November and then puts 4 to 10 inches on, because a bed that freezes and thaws lifts cloves out of it.

West of the mountains the cover is doing a different job. Skagit County mulches to hold the topsoil through a wet winter, and warns that compost spread after planting counts towards the depth the cloves sit at. King County uses chopped straw or shredded leaves and takes the mulch back off in spring, when it has become shelter for slugs and voles.

West of the Cascades

When it goes on: At planting, over the finished bed
How much: 3 to 4 inches of straw, or chopped straw and shredded leaves
What it is doing: Rain and erosion rather than deep cold, and it comes off in spring.

WSU Extension FS162E; Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025; King County Master Gardener Foundation, October 2024.

East of the Cascades

When it goes on: Mid-to-late November, as the ground begins to freeze
How much: 4 to 10 inches of straw or pine needles
What it is doing: Holds the temperature steady so freezing and thawing cannot lift the cloves, then stays between the rows as a weed cover.

Yakima County WSU Extension, Time to Plan and Plant Garlic, October 2026.

Both depths sit over a clove planted two inches deep, and Yakima County counts the mulch as ground the shoots have to cross: it pulls the straw back as the tips come through rather than clearing the bed.

What the winter and the shelf support

Which garlic to buy for your side

Most of the state's commercial crop is softneck, and most of the acreage is on the eastern side. Home-garden advice in the same counties runs to hardneck, because it carries the flavour, the scapes and the cold. A winter you can describe and a shelf life you want settles it from there.

The fact sheet's short version is that hardneck is the more cold-hardy type and grows well in colder climates, while softneck is the more adaptable one and stores longest. King County's climate pairing follows from that: rocambole, the purple stripes and the porcelains for a garden with winter freezes, and the turbans, creoles and asiatics for one without.

The state's commercial crop runs the other way, and both halves are useful. Most of it is softneck - silverskin and artichoke, with California Early and California Late the common field varieties - and the crop profile records the acreage growing on the eastern side, while small-scale growers across the state prefer hardneck. It names Asian Tempest, Chet's Italian Red and Music among the hardneck types they plant.

What every source agrees on is where the cloves come from. Certified seed garlic is grown for planting and free of the diseases a grocery bulb can carry, and Skagit County's warning is specific: culinary garlic can bring disease into a garden, and a supermarket bulb says nothing about its variety or the climate it grew in.

Which garlic to buy for your side
Class	What it takes	Who plants it
Hardneck	The colder ground. The fact sheet calls it the most cold-hardy of the two types, and King County pairs rocambole, purple stripe and porcelain with gardens that freeze.	Eastern Washington beds, and any west-side garden that wants scapes and large cloves. Skagit County says the Pacific Northwest is particularly suited to hardneck, which runs to a scape in June.
Softneck	Less winter cold, and it keeps longest: the fact sheet gives softneck the longer shelf life, and King County gives artichoke and silverskin 10 to 12 months against porcelain's six.	The west side's mild winters, and any grower who wants braidable stems. Silverskin and artichoke are most of Washington's commercial crop, and Inchelium Red and Nootka Rose are named by both the fact sheet and the King County program.

Music
Romanian Red
Spanish Roja
Chesnok Red
Inchelium Red
Nootka Rose

WSU Extension, Vegetables: Growing Garlic in Home Gardens (FS162E); King County Master Gardener Foundation, Anything Garlic!, October 2024; USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001; Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025.

Where the evidence stops

What the two seasons leave open

The western month is the state's largest disagreement, and splitting the difference settles nothing. The fact sheet says November, Skagit County says late October, King County says October, and the crop profile agrees with the fact sheet. Those are four answers from four publications, and not one of them measured your bed.

No Washington home-garden source here publishes a soil temperature to plant by. The crop profile's four to six weeks is an interval counted back from the ground freezing, and Yakima County's window is a pair of calendar dates. A frost is a third event again: Yakima places the first hard frost, below 28°F, in mid-to-late October, which is inside the planting window it publishes.

Mulch depth is a range in both directions, and both sources count it towards the depth the shoots have to cross in spring. Three to four inches at planting and four to ten inches once the ground freezes are different instructions for the same bed, and Yakima's reason for the later, deeper layer is the freeze and thaw that lifts a clove rather than the cold itself.

Neither the date nor the mulch drains a wet bed. The percolation test is the check, and its fixes are compost, a raised bed, or different ground.
The frost is not the cue on either side of the state: the eastern interval is counted from the ground freezing, and the western months come from the fact sheet and the two county programs.
The dormant period Yakima County describes is the mechanism behind the date rather than a number to measure: the clove roots, the cold stops it making leaves, and bulb formation starts when growth resumes in spring.
Spring planting is the fallback on both sides, and both sources price it: Skagit County says spring garlic comes in much smaller, and the crop profile says an early-spring planting loses yield potential and can produce round bulbs of a single clove.

Late, wet, or frozen out

What to do when the date has passed

A late bed, a bed that fails the drainage test, and ground that has already frozen ask for three different answers. Only the first of them is still a planting decision.

You are past the window and the ground still works

Plant. Both sides of the state treat their window as the middle of a season rather than the last chance: Skagit County accepts earlier and later than late October, and Yakima's season runs to November 15. Work the soil when it is neither frozen nor wet enough to smear, set the cloves as you would have in October, and keep the mulch you would have used.

The clove needs its weeks of root growth before the ground shuts it down, and a late planting shortens them. No Washington source promises a full harvest from a late bed; Skagit County's own comparison is spring planting, which it says comes in much smaller.

Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, Growing Garlic, September 2025; Yakima County WSU Extension, Time to Plan and Plant Garlic, October 2026.

The bed fails the drainage test

Leave it unplanted. Work compost through the top six inches, move the cloves to a raised bed or higher ground, and run the test again where they are going.

Cloves sitting in saturated ground rot rather than root, which is Skagit County's warning for the whole west side. A date cannot rescue that, and a slow bed stays slow through the winter the cloves are in it.

WSU Extension Spokane County, Easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soil Tests (C221); Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025.

The ground has frozen, or the cloves have heaved

Stop working it and cover it. Yakima County's 4 to 10 inches go on as the ground begins to freeze so a clove stays where it was put, and its spring instruction is to pull the straw back as the tips come through. If the bed froze before the cloves went in, hold them.

A spring planting is the fallback, and both sources price it: Skagit County says spring garlic is much smaller, and the crop profile says an early-spring planting loses yield potential and can produce round bulbs of a single clove. In western Washington the crop profile's window for it is March.

Yakima County WSU Extension, October 2026; USDA and WSU, Crop Profile for Garlic in Washington, 2001; Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners, September 2025.

Before the cloves go in

Run the percolation test in the bed first. Fifteen minutes of waiting is what tells you whether the cloves can go in there at all.
Prepare the ground with compost worked into the top six inches, in full sun, and keep onions and leeks out of it for three years.
Break the bulbs into cloves the day you plant and keep the largest, leaving out the small ones and any that are damaged.
Set them two inches deep, pointed end up, four to six inches apart in rows a foot or more apart, and put the cover on for your side of the state.

FAQ

Questions about Washington garlic

Check the two sides of the state, the drainage test behind a west-side bed, and what to do about a late or frozen planting.

When should I plant garlic in Washington?

It depends on which side of the Cascades you garden on. The state's fact sheet plants eastern Washington in September to October and western Washington in November. County programs narrow both: Skagit County calls late October the best west-side date, King County plants in October, and Yakima County's eastern window runs from October 1 to November 15.

How late can I plant garlic in Washington?

Yakima County's eastern window ends November 15, and Skagit County says earlier and later than late October can both work on the west side. The limit is the ground rather than the date, because a clove roots until the soil freezes, so a late planting simply gives it fewer weeks of roots. Spring is the fallback, and Skagit County says spring garlic comes in much smaller.

Should I plant garlic before or after the first frost?

Neither the frost nor a hard freeze is the cue. Eastern Washington's interval is counted back from the ground freezing, four to six weeks, and Yakima County's planting window runs from October 1 to November 15 while the first hard frost it reports arrives in mid-to-late October. On the west side the window is the October and November months the fact sheet and the county programs publish, and the drainage of the bed decides more than the frost does.

How do I know whether my soil is too wet for garlic?

Run the percolation test WSU publishes. Dig a hole a foot square and a foot deep, fill it and let it drain, refill it, measure the water, and multiply the drop after fifteen minutes by four. One to three inches an hour is acceptable for a garden bed and about two is ideal; below one inch an hour the ground is too slow, and Skagit County's warning is that too much moisture rots the seed. Compost, a raised bed or a different spot are the ways out.

What should I put over the cloves, and when?

The fact sheet spreads 3 to 4 inches of straw over the bed at planting, for cold protection. Yakima County waits until the ground begins to freeze in mid-to-late November and then uses 4 to 10 inches, because freezing and thawing lifts cloves out of the ground. On the west side the cover is for rain and erosion rather than deep cold, and King County takes it back off in spring, when mulch shelters slugs and voles.

Which garlic should I plant in Washington?

Hardneck is the more cold-hardy type and suits eastern winters; softneck is the more adaptable one and keeps longest. King County pairs rocambole, purple stripe and porcelain with gardens that freeze and turbans, creoles and asiatics with gardens that do not. Buy certified seed garlic, because Skagit County warns that culinary garlic can carry disease into a garden and a supermarket bulb says nothing about its variety or climate.

Can I plant garlic in spring in Washington?

Yes, as a fallback rather than a plan. The crop profile gives western Washington a very early spring window in March, with some loss of yield potential and the risk of round, single-clove bulbs, and Skagit County says spring-planted garlic comes in much smaller. Yakima County's explanation of the fall planting is the reason: the clove has to root, then go dormant, and the dormant period is what starts bulb formation.

Washington planting and soil references

The fact sheet and the crop profile give the two seasons, the county programs give the dates their own growers use, and WSU's soil publication gives the drainage test.

More Washington garlic advice

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Purple-striped garlic cloves spread on a dark surface, ready to be planted.

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