What part of the plant is a garlic bulb?

While purchasing my garlic and shallot stock, I spoke to the experts down at the feed and seed store about the problem I had with this past season's garlic... especially the hard-neck variety. At harvest, the cloves were not as filled out as I expected and the papery covering that protects the entire bulb was not there.

As usual, I learned something. Garlic bulbs are not part of the garlic plant's root system, nor are they part of the stem. And even though we plant individual cloves to produce the next crop of garlic, the cloves are not seeds. Can you believe? They're leaves! Who knew?

Yes, the garlic clove is actually a modified leaf. The leaves seen above the ground act as bulb wrappers. That's why it's important to make sure you dig up the bulbs before all the top leaves have dried down, to preserver some wrappers for the bulb to live in. Then, while cleaning the bulbs after drying, try to leave 4-5 wrappers for each bulb.

So, I may have had a couple of issues going on with my 2019 garlic harvest. Maybe I waited too long to harvest the hard-neck plants (hence the missing papery bulb cover) and maybe I should've fed my plants better (to plump up individual cloves). They recommended that I fertilize the soil prior to planting this fall with a mild organic 5-4-3 combination, then hit it with a higher nitrogen mix in the spring.

Today the garlic and shallot beds have been cleared of weeds, a brambling volunteer raspberry, rocks that keep rising to the surface, and other miscellaneous "trash." I spread the fertilizer as directed, just in time for rain expected tonight. I'll plant next week.