Description
Garlic Chives produce white, edible flowers appear in summer, and attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. The bushy clumps make an attractive edging in herb or vegetable gardens. Chives are a hardy cool-weather perennial, a relative of the onion. Will also tolerate frost. The tips of chive leaves have a mild onion flavor.
Companion Planting for Garlic Chives
Garlic Chives grow well with just about anything. Grapes, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, kohlrabi, mustard, peppers, potatoes, rhubarb, roses, squash, and strawberries all do better when growing near chives.
Growing Garlic Chives
Planting: Garlic Chives tolerate both cold and heat and is hardy to 5 degrees. Plant in full sun or partial shade. Space 8 inches apart, then thin to 12-15″.
Watering: Keep well water in the summer months. Garlic Chives needs well-drained soil.
Fertilizer: Prefers aged compost added to soil prior to planting.
Days to Maturity: Can harvest leaves around 30-60 days. Seedlings emerge in 4-14 days.
Size: Garlic Chives grows 12 to 15″ tall and wide. The foliage has a mounded form the first year; in the second year, flowering stalks elongate to rise above the mound.
Harvesting: Snip Garlic Chives when about 6″ when they are most tender.
Tips: The plant thrives in chilly to warm and hot temperate regions. As the weather warms, chives become more oniony in flavor.
Cooking with Chives: Popular when added to sour cream for baked potato filling. Fresh picked and snipped chives are a tasty garnish or flavoring in omelets, scrambled eggs, salads, and soups.
