Found these directions:

Want really fresh garlic? Grow your own either in a flower bed or a pot. All you need is one garlic bulb to get started. If you can find one that appears to be sprouting, you’ll be a bit ahead of the game.

Garlic is grown from the individual cloves that make up the bulb. Each clove will produce one plant with a single bulb that contains up to 20 garlic cloves.

Choose a garden site or spot for your pot in full sun where soil is not too damp. The cloves should be planted individually, upright, about four inches apart and about one inch under the surface.

Ideally in the U.S. and Europe, plant garlic during the last week or two of October, after the first major freeze (garlic grows well in mild climates, but the bulbs will not be as large). As garlic reaches maturity (the bulbs remain under the surface), the leaves will turn brown and begin to die away. This is the sign to pull the bulbs from the ground, leaving the foliage attached.

Do not wash. Simply hang the garlic in a cool, dry place where the air can circulate on all sides of the bulbs so they can dry properly. After a week or so, take the garlic down and brush the dirt off gently. Store your garlic in a cool, dry place. Use within 2 months for best results.

Good idea GSue! I've been thinking about growing my own garlic this year. There are so many wonderful varieties out there, and storebought garlic is usually so tired and tasteless . . . I'm getting tempted to fill up some long windowboxes and make use of my big upstairs windows with the deep sills.

Lacinato kale is on my list too . . . for next year.   

thanks for the great tips!

I just oven roasted tons of garlic cloves with a bit of ghee drizzled on top and some salt.
yummmmmmm.........
of course I m home alone, my hub is away in Europe and I can indulge!lol

yum! I love roasted garlic, alone or with other veggies.

Fresh garlic is so much better than store bought (sigh). I should do this.

I've grown garlic in the ground (when I lived in CA) but the cloves always turned out so small (and hard to peel). Any one have any ideas about getting bigger cloves?

Great tip Gemini Sue! Recently I got a bag of home grown fresh garlic from Japan. They were tiny, with purplish jackets and packed several mean punches! Loved the flavour!

Here is the way I have grown garlic the last 7 years
somewhere between late september to mid octobre I plant large bulbs in welldrained soil.
I don´t plant as deep as geminisue says... but I mulch a few weeks later- with grasscut, leaves- almost ready compost.
I can heavest somewhere between early july/mid july.

My garlicharvest last pretty much to april/may
- after they are dry I keep them in a large claypot with holes in the bottom.
The varity I grow is called hardnecked -it means that you can´t braid them - so I just cut them. What I like about the hardnecked varity is that they produce huge, easy to peel cloves- mine are white on the outside but have rosy skin on the cloves.
The starter came from Hungary 25 years ago- got my starter bulbs from a teacher at the local school.

I harvested 40 bulbs this year - 10 I gave away, I took 6 huge without damge bulbs to plant again- and the rest will be mine

I have tried with other types- but they just don´t get large enough and some get disease as well.

Brighid
I have lots of Lacinato kale in my garden right now- still fighting the nasty kale butterflies

Thank you for sharing this garlic tip with us, geminisue.

Alia

Try the variety Meitachi. It is a purple variety and is very powerfully pungent and even hot. I wonder if that is the variety a chinese resteraunt uses in the kim chee? Love it!

garlic chips!!! yum!!
unfortunately you either need to be Robinson or live alone in a deserted island somewhere for that!!

Quoted from lola

garlic chips!!! yum!!
unfortunately you either need to be Robinson or live alone in a deserted island somewhere for that!!

Not if you both eat it! !

united for life!!!

Quoted from gulfcoastguy

Try the variety Meitachi. It is a purple variety and is very powerfully pungent and even hot. I wonder if that is the variety a chinese resteraunt uses in the kim chee? Love it!

This must be the kind that my girlfriend's mother grows and every year I buy a braid of them.   On store bought garlic I can take a clove and chew it up with my meal.  I had just purchased my latest braid and was anxious to try the fresh garlic with my breakfast.  Took one whole clove and started eating it.   I had forgotten to eat a little something with it and my eyes started to water.  I swallowed and then my throat started to burn and then my tummy started.  Well...almost to the point of throwing up...was I.  Had to grab a glass of water as it was the quickest thing I could think of to dilute the happenings in my body.   It worked.  Now I know enough to eat something with it or put it in something.   Sooooooo much more tastier and pungent  than store bought.  Planting some would be a good idea.   Just may do that.  Will have to call my girlfriend and ask for some loose bulbs as the braid is too pretty to break up for planting.

Debra

On this page you can see a lot of differnt types:
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/boutique.htm#anchorcultivars

and they also have tips on how to grow it in warmer climate

Thanks,
I was reading in an old back yard living magazine that had lots of tips and the different varieties to plant for different areas yum.. I was thinking about planting but around hear we had a hard time growing much food stuff for some reason
flowers and weeds did great.
When the farmers harvest their fields of garlic around here and I see a field being worked I stop and just smell the wonderful garlic... Judy gags. to each their own.