You don't want sprouts to come up until late Winter/early Spring at the earliest. Somewhere in March is preferable I believe. My Cloves aren't sprouting yet, and I planted about them in the middle of October. If they are sprouting, they aren't breaking out of the ground yet because I put them just a tad deeper just so they can be protected from all the cold we're supposed to get this year.

My sprouts are 1 foot tall now, and they will survive deep freezes. They will easily push through wood chips or pine straw, but they ca not push through maple matted leaves, so make sure your mulch is loose enough.

Thank you both - Stuffradio, I am a full zone colder than you - my garlic came up in the fall last year. I put grass mulch around it, not too deep, and it did fine. I had a nice harvest in the summer. I think it all depends on how cold the soil is - my sprouts aren't as tall as Glib's, who is in a colder zone than I am.

Glib, I use grass clippings from my garden, and maybe about a half to one inch's worth. I don't want anything deep enough for the local rodents to treat as winter headquarters if I can help it.

Remember all that snow at the Dallas Super Bowl? My garlic never even noticed it. Of course our ground doesn't freeze solid so that might make a difference.

The sprouts coming up now are NOT a concern. It happens quite often and is normal. The mulch you use does need to be loose and not compacted.

I've been growing garlic, both softneck and hardneck (10 different varieties), for over 10 years and sprouting before a winter freeze is not uncommon.

Cindy

Fall is the correct time to plant garlic in the south. It comes up and grows through the winter and is ready to harvest in late spring to early summer. I planted mine 3 weeks ago and I would guess that 2/3 of it is up now.

After getting the soil prepped, I laid 2 x 4 lumber on the soil where the rows would be and mulched the entire bed. Then I pulled up the lumber and planted the garlic in the blank spaces. Naturally, the pine straw kind of "dripped" over the row areas, but the garlic seems to be coming up just fine. Chances are that your freeze tonight will not harm your garlic whether you mulch or don't. They are only calling for 30 here.... If you are concerned, though, I think the easiest thing to do would to be just to throw some row cover or even a sheet over the plants for the next two nights. It's not supposed to be freezing for at least another week after that.

Ooh, I like your bed prep idea, donnabaskets!

Glib, When is your first hard frost and when did you plant? I planted right at the first hard frost and mine are poking through 2" or so.

I can't take credit for the idea. I read it in Fine Gardening Magazine. But it sure is a helpful idea. I find mulching around small plants to be very tedious. It's well worth the effort to lay the boards down first. Is your garlic up now? I think every clove of mine has now emerged and they are growing like gangbusters.

My first hard frost has yet to come, but with garlic it is irrelevant. It takes sub zero temps without damage. I planted it in mid-september this year, and we had had a very mild Fall.