ok, go ahead and laugh, because this is a dumb question! I am going to be planting some hard neck garlic next week, and I don't have any beds ready for it so I was planning on planting the cloves between my tall bearded iris in their new beds. The soil is loose and sandy enough but I wanted to be sure garlic doesn't inhibit the growth of other plants. Is it ok to intersperse garlic with other rhizomes/bulbs? thanks!

Garlic IS allelopathic. It discourages the growth of other plants around it. In fact, horticulture students are usually introduced to allelopathy by doing experiments with garlic. Turns out that even decomposed garlic stalks can do it.

Thank you! I must have read this somewhere and had it in the back of my mind - I don't know why I would have thought to ask otherwise. I'll be making them their own bed this week! Thanks for saving my newly planted iris

And yet, it doesn't seem to have any effect on stopping my children from watching vampire movies.

Muhahahaha!!

Early last century, kids wore garlic around their necks so they wouldn't catch colds. Makes some sense, in that cold-carriers (and everyone else as well) would stay far away from them. For all I know, it probably discouraged their growth as well.

Other thing being aesthetics, the garlic life cycle for production- would you enjoy having the garlic there until about June, maturing and then drying?

It also may inhibit cancer too. Who knows? My brother's in laws eat tons of fresh garlic, one died at 99, one is still alive at 95. Wheelchair bound but nonetheless still no AZ or other problems. She also has high cholesterol reading too.

Does this include alliums, green onions, chives ect ?

Just wondering since they are all the same type of plants. I grew some type of garlic/alliums and it didn't bother anything around it. I don't exactly what they were though, someone gave them to me and just said they were some type of garlic thingy that gets pretty flower heads Here is a pic of what I had. I plan to put out some green onions, and planted alliums last fall, and would like to add some garlic, but I didn't think about it stunting growth of other plants. I would think it would be a great deterrent for pests, to plant among other plants, similar to how we use marigolds in the beds.

I believe all alliums (onion, garlic, leeks) are somewhat allelopathic. Interestingly, there has been some research into planting alliums around more resistant plants specifically to hold down weeds.

The weeds loved mine I didn't notice any difference at all in the weeds around that area in compairson to the rest of my yard. I had it all planted pretty thick in the same area too. Maybe the soil type, kind of weeds ect make a difference

Would growing green onions in a pot with cilantro, parsley and radishes make them taste like onion?

No I don't believe any of these plantswould impart the taste to anything else.

Onion, being considered to be allelopathic, might be worth a try to see if it harms other plants' growth. Please let us know if it affects the other plants.

I know you aren't feeding the onion to your rabbits are you?

is feeding rabbits onions a no no? I don't know that they'd like them, but do they hurt the if they do actually eat them?

I have no hands on rabbit experience but they are definitely bad for cats and dogs. Internal bleeding and kidney failure. Not good. I wondered if rabbits have the same issue.

alright google search says no onions for rabbits, looks like a big nope!

I would never, ever permit my rabbits, cats or dog to eat onions or garlic. Ever! That's why I'm so concerned about anything onion-y affecting the greens. Which I call salads just for fun. If I get paranoid about it I'll just eat the radishes in the bean pot myself.

Here's a pic of my wild 'onions', they are everywhere around here, I mean hundreds and hundreds of them, all over my beds and yard. I have spent several yeas now digging them, spraying them, nothing works. The other plants don't seem to mind, they grow fine.

@frillylily are they edible?

Our wild onions are tiny. I don't know anyone who eats them, truly don't know if they are edible.

Wild onions and garlic, I believe are all edible but that is not the same as being worth dealing with cleaning all those tiny bulbs, or cutting the leaves that may be tough. How would you ever get all the grit off the bulbs? Maybe in desperation you could make wild onion broth.

They pop up all over in my yard.