We have always been disappointed in the quality of store-bought garlic. The heads that we get from the farmers' market are much better, but they're very expensive and unavailable during winter when there's no farmers' market in our area. Last year, for my birthday, my wife gave me some heritage garlic bulbs and some instructions on growing garlic. It was quite simple and very rewarding (lots of great garlic.)
The secret to growing garlic is having soft, well drained soil. Don't have that? Neither do we. Fortunately it's quite easy to obtain. Rather than attempting to till and condition our rock-hard clay I built a small raised bed. I bought ten eight foot low quality landscaping timbers (low quality because they're cheap and don't need to look pretty) and some good quality soil to fill it. I cut two of the timbers into two foot sections and made a bed two feet by eight feet. If you don't want to build a raised bed you can just dump some quality soil on the ground. It will just be harder to maintain since it will tend to wash away during heavy rains.
Last year I planted the garlic just after Halloween and made sure to cover it with lots of grass clippings to protect it. I'm in north central Illinois and have very cold winters. Two inches of grass clipping worked just fine. You don't need to use grass clippings but they were free so that's what I used.
The garlic was ready to harvest in late July. I could have probably harvested it earlier but is was a very wet spring and I opted to wait until the soil was dry. After the harvest we hung the garlic heads on a string in the basement. The basement is the coolest, driest, darkest part of the house. It worked perfectly.
Now that it's almost Halloween we'll select the largest cloves from the harvest and plant them for next year's crop.
Here are links to the books that I used (and still use) for any questions that I have. They are easy reads and well worth obtaining. You're going to love the fresh garlic. Have fun!
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