Sue
I'm sorry - looks like I missed your fire in May also. inorder to keep my BP under stroke level I've been distant from this place over the past several weeks. very sorry for all you lost and any difficulties you may have faced thereafter. you arrived in FL just after I left this trip - had I been in Orlando when you were in Tampa I would have made it a point to try to meet you.
enjoy the time you have there with you family - the way things are going in this ol' werld one never knows just when we'll see family again. my older grand kids (15 & 12) arrive this afternoon for a week. my youngest (2,4 & 6) arrive with DS & DIL over the 4'th.
as you said above
"GOD IS IN CONTROL"
and now - back to the
GARLIC
I've planted Italian Hard Neck Garlic for 35 years. what I plant is my grandfathers Italian hardneck garlic that arrived here from the mother land with him in 1906. since I'm the last one left that plants anything I became the family "keeper of the clove". I plant it and harvest it - let it dry then braid it - and when its ready to use - I send it around to family, sharing it with them as he had when I was a kid. I know that variety of garlic very well and the other varieties are likely very similar. I always plant a minimum of 200 cloves at a pop and typically closer to 400.
here's what I've learned over that time:
Steps to Growing Great Garlic
Always start with quality planting stock. Plant the biggest cloves - they yield the biggest bulbs. save the smaller ones to eat.
Planting in fall is best, though some have good luck with early spring planting. Full sun preferred.
Garlic is a heavy feeded and likes friable soil, near neutral pH, with some composted manure. Incorporate a little bone meal at planting.
Plant cloves about 5-6 inches apart and 2-3 inches deep, point up, root down.
Mulch your garlic with straw, alfalfa, leaves, etc. Don't worry if shoots emerge during winter; it won't be hurt - even in a killing frost
Keep the soil moist. Don't let it dry out, even during the winter - but it DOES NOT like to be too wet.
Garlic hates weeds - if the neck of your garlic gets wet or is too deep in the mulch it will grow small cloves "above " the bulb under ground. that takes energy from the main bulb and it will be smaller.
Garlic likes a few foliar feedings in spring, but do not fertilize after early June.
If growing hardnecks or elephants, cutting the scapes just as they start to curl will increase bulb size.
Harvest when the leaves on the lower third to half of the plant have largely turned brown and it begins to fall over.
Be sure to cure your garlic by hanging in a cool shady, well ventilated place for 3-4 weeks.
How and When to Harvest
you can't just "pull" the garlic up - like carrots or scallions- it has to be "dug". start digging about 4 or 5 inches from the stem by putting the shovel straight down and loosen the dirt by moving the shovel back and forth. I try to by sure I get under the bulb. The roots are not long, once the dirt is loosened you should be about to pull the heads out. If it doesn't come out easily I try to loosen the dirt again. There are times I cut a piece off, it happens. Start at one end and work down the row.
let them dry that day in the sun, but don't leave them out over night and DO NOT let them get wet or rained on. I gather them up in the late evening of the day I dug them and lay them out on a long bench under shade for a week to continue drying. you'll want that area to be cool and DRY and have enough space so that the leaves of the of the garlic can continue to dry. after about a week like that it will be ready to clean, trim the roots and braid. after you've braided it, it should be hung to finish drying.
when cleaning and preparing to braid - I peel off a couple layers, until it is clean and looks white, but not so much that you expose the individual cloves. I braid it, then hang it in the wood shop for about 4 weeks. I cut off the roots and about 2 inches from the top of the leaves at this point. if you don't care to braid it, just tie about 12 together with twine and hang it up that way.
before you start any of this - go through it all and choose the very biggest bulbs to save for planting the following year. I let those hang until I am ready to plant in the fall. DO NOT break apart your bulbs into individual cloves until just before you are going to plant it. you can add a little bone meal to your rows at that point.
You can also hang them in your fruit cellar and cut off one or 2 bulbs as you need them. Cool temps help prevent sprouting. After about 6 mos. no matter what, it will start to sprout. You can also put a head or 2 in a paper bag in the refrigerator to use, and that seems to work well.
DO NOT STORE IN PLASTIC BAGS. it will rot
you CAN plant garlic in the spring - but I have
ALWAYS planted at the end of OCTOBER - just
after the FULL MOON and
BEFORE the Last Quarter . . . my grandfather always called it
"Luna alla chetichella" - "the going away moon" 
hope that helps all the garlic lovers out here - becasue you can absolutely
NEVER EVER
have TOO MUCH garlic
