I started planting my garlic on October 20th. Usually here (in New Haven CT) you want to start planting your garlic around mid October. You don't want to plant it too early as the cloves will start to grow too much, but you don't want to get it in so late that the garlic doesn't have a chance to acclimate before the winter sets in. We've been getting some warm days here so it gives me more wiggle room to get them all in. I've been working in 3 different gardens, but I'll be planting my garlic in 4 places. My partner and I are starting a farm and I'll have lots of room to put in more garlic this year. Garlic is a heavy feeder, so the first thing you want to do is enrich the soil before you plant. I get composted manure and humus mix, add that to the soil and dig it under before i plant. The above photo shows the compost added, i rake it around then dig it under and rake it smooth. 

Once i do that, i separate the cloves of my garlic. You want to plant each clove, pointy end up, 4-6" apart, and 6-10" between the rows. Remember that all these little cloves will grow into a full head of garlic so give them room so you can get a nice big head of garlic. If you plant them too close they won't have the room to get large. I like to separate the cloves and lay them out on the top of the soil, then all i have to do is dig 4" deep and plant them in, they're all set where they should be. Makes the work go faster. I'm planting 4 different kinds of garlic this year. The music and german red garlic are from what i grew this year. I'm also trying cascade rose which is an early developing hard neck, and susanville which is a soft neck garlic.Soft neck garlics aren't supposed to do well here, this one though, is supposed to deal with tough winters better than others, and the soft necks can save for over a year, which most of the hard neck garlics won't. So.. giving it a try.

You need to add some kind of mulch to garlic. While the hard necks are very hardy, you want the mulch on it to prevent heaving. Heaving means, the garlic rises up over the soil line, this isn't something you want to happen, it occurs when temperatures go up and down. 4 - 6" of mulch on top of your garlic will prevent this, for soft necks, you want 10-12" of mulch as they're not as hardy. I'll show photos of that when i add the mulch. I don't want to add it too soon as the temperatures are well above freezing and there's no need to do it yet. if you add the mulch too soon, it will give nice cosy homes to pests for the winter.