I grew Red Russian which is a hardneck. Pretty easy to do. Plopped it in the ground mid October, it started sprouting in December, and other than weeding, I didn't really do much other work except to harvest. So far one of my bulbs have gotten 8 cloves! I haven't harvested all yet, so not sure if any others are as big or bigger.

This year will be my first time trying garlic as well. I don't know how much you are looking to grow but what I did was order 8oz of 5 diffrent types. I ordered from territorial seed company. Wegrowgarlic.com also has a ton of diffrent types for sale.

Fairly small scale. Probably not more than one or two plants per type, and only a couple of types.

I like to start small until I get the hang of a new plant.

See if you can find a garlic festival in your area. Last year I ordered online and got the most pitifully small seed garlic, I didn't even plant it (and I spent a lot of money on it). I was on vacation in Maine in Sept., and stumbled upon a garlic festival. I got to pick out nice, big heads and ask the farmer about the different varieties. If you google garlic festivals in your state, you might find some. I can't comment on any varieties I grew yet, because I just dug them up last week, and they are drying. The one marked Georgia something or rather was the biggest, but the tag faded, so I'm not sure the exact name :)

I have an Italian Late softneck garlic that is the most versatile of the garlics I grow. It is good raw in salad dressings, on garlic bread, and very nice cooked. If you like the garlic taste in good Italian cooking, it just has the right flavor. Spanish Roja is extra nice sauteed, but raw it leaves a lot to be desired. Burning with no garlic flavor to my palate. I stopped growing Korean Red a few years back for having the opposite thing, a burst of flavor raw that seemed to disappear when cooked. Anyway, a good italian garlic would be my recommendation to start with. Cheers!