Never heard of anyone trying this, but as it stands, you aren't going to get anything anyway. Dig it up, separate into cloves and replant at the same depth about 4" apart and water well. You may only get single rounds of garlic, but you will have learned a valuable lesson. We've all made these types of mistakes, welcome to the club! Just for future clarity, the whole thing is a bulb, the individual sections are cloves. You plant a clove and it produces a bulb.

Steve

Thanks, Steve. Hopefully, all will go well. Even if I get singles, I just want to see something come out of these!

...I see a lot of valuable lessons in my near future.

Will let you know how it turns out,

Heather

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward." -Vernon Law

Hey garlic experts, I am a garden rookie myself, I as well almost planted the whole head then realised at the last minute it's each individual clove... one question though, has anyone tried to stagger garlic planting, can that be done? So you would get a few bulbs say in Aug,Sept and Oct?

Dear Glib (no pun intended)...Apparently,I do!

I jest. I'm new to this. I did extensive research (one nursery told me I may be over-thinking it all) on planting. I can't know everything. I can only keep trying my best.

I replanted today! It was surgery and went better than expected. ...We shall see!!

Good luck, Micky-Irish!

Nos vemos en el jardín,

Heather

Hi Heather,
What Glib said is true, but what the heck, you might as well keep going and see how it turns out, besides ...I grow hundreds of pounds of garlic per year and I am always coming across garlic that was missed from last year, and I just pull them up and transplant them, they never give me any trouble, and they are no different from the ones that were done correctly...you'll be fine, no harm-no foul ;-)
Check out my video (link is below), on transplanting garlic's, here is a pic of one of the transplants that I divided..

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Here is a link that might be useful: Transplanting Garlic

Heather...
Just so you understand Jon and Glib. Garlic is to be planted in the FALL and it overwinters and bulbs the following summer and is harvested in the mid/late summer. Think: GARLIC = FALL PLANTING

Mikeyirish...I am no expert, but no advantage to stagger planting unless you want to experiment with planting with Moon cycles. PLEASE SEE ABOVE TO HEATHER GARLIC = FALL PLANTING

After reading your posts (I'm so appreciative that you all took the time to help/encourage) and taking into consideration the little space that I have, I think it's probably best to utilize that soil better. ...Maybe I'll keep one, for curiosity's sake.

Grateful for your assistance, empathy, and fun quotes,

Heather

From what I've been told, it is fine to plant in the spring, but the cloves will be smaller than if you plant in the fall, this is my first year, and I wasn't aware of that, so i'm giving it a shot right now then I'll plant more cloves in late October and let them winter from now on.

You plant in spring. I did last year, they are smaller, and used as fresh garlic. I know others who do this in CA as well. I put some out in fall this past year as well and they are obviously bigger.

Experimenting is half the fun IMO....leave some in and see what happens.

Accidently hug up my garlic...should I wait til fall to replant or trim and replant

If they’re not harvestable size I’d put them back in the ground without trimming and water them in well.

tj

ok guys I have a question about garlic. I planted last fall and it is coming up great. But I am putting a new greenhouse where that bed is and that is the only place to put the new greenhouse. Can I dig the garlic up and transplant it somewhere else without damaging it? Some of this garlic is very special to me and I don't want to lose any of it.

If your two alternatives are move it or lose it then I would say to try to move it. You will need to dig pretty deep to get most of the roots. Moving it will probably set it back but you probably won't kill it.