Besides the traditional way of planting garlic, I've been keeping a 3x5 foot patch of garlic at the back of the property. It started when I didn't dig up my garlic from there one year, and I hadn't sniped the scapes off. All of the little bulblets from the scapes planted themselves and I ended up with a really healthy looking solid patch of garlic coming up the next year. I dug up what I wanted to use for green garlic in the spring and left the rest go, letting it seed down with the bulblets, and come up from the bulbs. Now this is the only garlic I use from early-mid spring through til early summer. In the spring, I just loosen the ground and pull out the amount of garlic I need. You can use the small bulb and the fleshy neck for cooking. I throw some of the leaves, finely chopped into my salads. After the scape forms, the necks start to get tough and I tend just to snip the scapes off and use them into the summer. I use the bulblets as they form because the patch is quite big enough now, and I'm not interested in an aromatic lawn. Once the bulblets are formed and dry you can snip them off and save them just like you'd save garlic bulbs. They're small and fiddley to use though. I find the flavour of the green garlic to be just a little bit milder than the cloves, and I use it heavily in stir fries and saute it in with other vegetables like asparagus and my frozen beans.
Garlic chives are another option Another option for cooking with a garlicy flavour is garlic chives. They make a nice addition when chopped up to stir fries, salads and omlettes, and, depending on the growing zone are pretty much perrenials. They do well as a container planting or in a pottage garden.
ONe of my favourite side dishes: Garlic Chive Kimchi | Aeri's Kitchen | Cooking Korean Recipies & Food
