I didn't lose any garlic over last winter but my elephant garlic and softnecks were undersized. Not much you can really do about it. My hardnecks were fine. I always put a layer of mulch a few inches thick immediately after planting.

Rodney

My local farmers said they had a bad year last year due to cold and wet weather. I do not know the details of it. Maybe some plants did not come up?

garlic seems to cope much better with the cold than too much wet weather. like Rodney, I mulch my garlic immediately after planting but removed it a couple of months back after weeks of heavy rain - am in the southern hemisphere so spring time here - waterlogging would make the garlic more susceptible to fungal diseases.

One way to really cut down on the losses is to loosen up the soil and amend it with some compost so the garlic can really dig their roots into the ground before it freezes and then coating it with a few inches of maple leaves.

The species will matter quite a bit since there are certain species such as the German White "Porcelain type" which will seem to never rot away through the winter no matter what conditions they are given since they are so tough.

I started out with 1lb, 3 years ago, and this year have about 50lbs of that species planted for harvest next year.