Most grocery types are soft neck. Soft neck garlic doesn't survive in Z5 or Z6. Hard neck garlic have a stiff stalk in the center and once it sends up a scape and bud, you cut these off. Garlic does get planteed in fall for the next summers crop. There are several places that sell garlic for planting. Musik or Music is one with big sized cloves. There are several other choices too like German hardy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's

interesting. I will have to plant some garlic this fall. Do they do well in a raised bed? what time is best to plant them? I am in Mass zone 6.

I'm in Mmass zone 6 too. I usually would plant them about mid September. Order early though as many suppliers run out by the beginning of September. Johnny's has several types, so choose only the more hardy hard neck varities. You usualy get whole bulbs of garlic, and you seperate them into individual cloves that are planted about 6 inches apart. They should do fine in a raised bed too. Make sure they get some good slow release fertilizer in early spring, and prep the soil beforehand with a similar fertilizer. Dixondale sells many onion types and I usually use their fertilizer for my garlic.
Another Music supplier:
http://www.southernexposure.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?store_code=SESE&screen=PROD&product_code=65314

Right next to the garlic, I have have walking onions growing. These are now showing light green buds that form new bulbils, and the they topple and plant themselves next to the main onion. I harvest the bulbils about mid July and dig up the ones in soil soon after. These are a nice mellow smell and taste and have the color and shape of a purple shallot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Music garlic source for the fall

thanks ksrogers Im in eastern Mass too!

I will follow your advice. just one more question, out of each bulb of garlic roughly how many can you get? I dont want to over plant, but I do want to give away too.

The amount you get depends on how many cloves are in the original bulb you plant. To get an approximate idea of the total amount of garlic, check out what is the weight of a store bought bulb. Each clove you seperate and plant will form a new whole bulb with several cloves. Varieties like Music have about four large cloves per bulb. You seperate the four cloves and plant each one individually. Very simple..

I buy mine from thegarlicstore.com They have all types for all zones and tons of usefull information. I would not order from anywhere else! Here in zone 7 I plant around Thanksgiving. Betsy

Looks like your source is also accepting orders for fall planting. As mentioned, the most popular right now, for the north is the hard neck type- Music. I just placed an order with the source I linked to above and the cost was close to what The Garlic store offered.
I found a few odd green shoots last fall and they had been left over from previous years of garlic growing. I seperated the very small cloves and replanted them, but this year, the green stalks fell over and most have died. I think its not wise to try and get some leftovers from the previous year, and expect them to grow very big. I had also tried to grow soft necks, but none ever survived our winters.

I will have to start making my list! This year I am going to try to be more organized with my varieties. Every year I plant and mark were the different types are so I can compate taste, size and such but every year when I pull them up I get them all mixed up so I don't know which is which!

Stay with just a couple of varieties and keep them in seperate locations. Sometimes one type will marure quicker than another. Just be vigilent with the prompt remoavl of the scapes that form. These are great by themsleves, as I pickled all of my scapes in vinegar. The scapes are that hard neck center and if left to grow and form bulbils, will weaken the plant and reduce clove size in the soil.

Johnny's Selected Seeds has several varieties of garlic. They are a New England company and I have had good luck with their garlic before (I'm a Mainer).

Johnny's Seeds Garlic

Fedco Seeds, another Maine company, also has several varieties of garlic for fall planting. I've planted theirs before, also, and had good luck.

Fedco Garlic

As I mentioned above, JOHNNY'S has some strains of garlic, but choose hard nech types of you want hardy northern varieties

Thanks for the info everyone. I appreciate it. The only problem now is that I'll have to wait to actually plant the garlic for a few months. :(

I'm busy with my summer garden, so I guess all is not lost, but I am anxious to get the garlic in the ground in the fall of this year.

Consider placing an order now. You get a better chance at being able to choose the type you want. Later on, many suppliers sell out quickly. My garlic choice is now in transit to me. Once it arrives it can be stored in the fridge until you seperate the cloves and plant it. Planting too early, however may cause it to bolt and send up an early scape, which you don't want to see until next year.

So let me get this straight, plant the bulbs from the clove, when the scapes (the hard green neck in the center) come up cut them and pickle in vinegar? How tall do you wait til you cut them? Will they come up in spring? before you harvest the bulb in fall?

Can you tell I'm new to garlic?

The scapes are a stiff stalk and it emerges about the beginning of the summer after a previous fall planting. The tops have a light color green 'bud', that should not be allowed to open. If the scape is left on the garlic plant, they tend to take away nutrients necessary for large cloves. I usually cut off most of the stalk (scape). These are tender enough (like a raw string bean texture) that you can cut them in short lengths about 3-6 inches long. I packed many in pint canning jars. They also got some fresh dill weed and of course white vinegar and pickling salt. They do get processed in a boil water bath, per normal home canning instructions for regular pickles.

The Garlic (allium) forum has more info on garlic options, culture, varieties and many more experiences. I just don't go there anymore due to a bit of a battle after stating that I have an unusual chive that is green growing during the winter months and sends out a similar scape with tiny bulbils I crumble and replant around this time of year. As it turned out, someone here had correctly identified this 'winter chive' as being a wild onion. Needless to say, the onion in the soil isn't bothered with, as they are as small as peas, so I only harvest the thin tubular green leaves that look like chives. If anyone wants some of these wild onions, which are quite hardy even at Z3-4, I can send off a few of these clusters in a few weeks, when they are ready to be removed from the stalks.

Do you then use these wild onions as a chive type thing? or like an onion?

The wild onions are tiny. I could see myself peeling a pea sized onion! grin.. Anyway, yes, the greens do look exactly like chives. Tubular, the same size, smell, and taste as chives. They grow from late fall to late spring. They die out now, as its getting quite warm. Now, I see is the little tan and purple balls of tiny bulbs in round clusters about a half to three quarter of an inch around, sticking straight out about a foot above the plants on thin stiff green stalks. Soon, I pluck these off and either collect a few to send out or crumble them in my fingers and then they fall where they may, in the same small patch. If I let any of these loose elsewhere, I will see them sprout the same greens where they landed the next year. Very hardy in winter even if they freeze with ice and snow on them. I can go out in January and still snip off some greens if they are not buried under a lot of snow.

That sounds interesting, and tasty! I'd like to give them a go as long as they'll grow in the cold we have up here. I just ordered my garlic for planting this fall, I'm wicked excited to try that too!

I'm a saler for garlic in china,Maybe you can plant it in sand.my msn:abream1127@hotmail.com

A great organic garlic farm in Vermont is Green Mountain Garlic. They have many varieties of hardneck and softneck for sale: www.greenmountaingarlic.com

Fedco in Maine sells garlic in the fall in their tubers website outlet. I'm very happy with the quality.