I don't know the answer to your question about the garlic, but I can assure you that the Vegetable Police (Garlic Division) will be at your door tomorrow at 7:02 a.m.

That kind of hardcore abuse simply will NOT be tolerated! Why, you'll be lucky not to get lynched! ;-)

Sue

I do know that onion will winter over. I would think the same for garlic. I would mulch heavy and leave them be and see what happens next year. I would go ahead and plant garlic at your correct time just in case it doesnt work out thou.

If its still alive, it will probably survive, but may take a couple of years to recover to the point it produces normal sized heads. You may be better off just planting new cloves this fall and NOT covering them in newspapers and mulch.

you should mulch but not with newspaper which just smothers the garlic. you can harvest the garlic that is there as green garlic but i think you will have to get new seed garlic to plant this fall.

belgianpup, thanks so much for the tip about the Vegetable Police (Garlic Division). I am packing for a Long Trip to Parts Unknown and will leave just as soon as I finish this post.

Thanks, everyone else, for the information about the possibility of garlic rehabilitation. I know the easiest and most logical thing to do would be start over with new seed garlic, but now I feel a kind of responsibility towards the garlic I almost killed, as well as an admiration and respect for its will to live.

So I would like to give it the life and the lifestyle I am sure it deserves.

Which brings me to my next question.

Although roses might love garlic, I don't think this garlic loves roses, or more specifically, I don't think it loves living in the rose bed. I originally planted it there because I heard roses and garlic were supposed to cohabitate well together, plus, the rose bed is quite sunny and the soil has benefited from years of mushroom soil and other goodies.

Unfortunately, between the soaker hoses and the snow runoff, I think the rose bed is a little too damp at times for optimum garlic performance. And of course there is the fact that I am a mulching fool. So I would like to move the garlic to the raised bed I built, which also gets lots of sun and is 18 inches high, full of composted horse... product. I think the garlic would be much happier there, as long as I resist the urge to mulch with newspaper.

So without further ado, here is/are my question(s): Should I wait for the baby garlic to die down by itself before moving it, and if so, when should I expect it to die down? Or should I just move it now, carefully bringing along all the roots?

Thank you all so much for listening and for your valuable advice.

Lois in PA

I can run but I can't hide. My garden has been visited by Dog Stinkhorn fungus. How embarrassing.