The great scape

See this? This strange, curly-wurly little thing coming out of my garlic plants is a scape. And scapes, although they may sound a little like an unfortunate physical condition, are good news for your garlic.

As you can see, the scape, or flowerbud, is embarking on a little loop-the-loop. And once it has finished its second loop-the-loop, it’s time to cut the scape off. Doing this will increase the size of the bulb by around 20 per cent. Of course, you can keep the scape and allow it to develop little bulbils, which you can then grow into full garlic plants.