Barb, likely planting closer to the end of September. I wouldn't do the blood meal until planting day, as N disappears quickly in the garden. You may also want to put your hardnecks together and easily harvestable, as you'll be using the scapes in late spring-early summer for pesto and stir-fry. I'd use wall block which is stronger. I saw ICF (cinder block) at Lowe's on sale last week, but lighter gray & not darkish - but much cheaper & you can fill holes with gravel or something for stability & insulation.

Dan

In years past, it seems that I get the best eventual harvest if the fall garlic is showing some growth - say 3 inches - above ground before the nasty weather comes in December. Last year, I planted late, mid-October, and never saw any shoots, and this year my harvest was smaller bulbs than normal. But there are several confounders - a dry Nov-Dec, then 3 months of heavy snow cover, and weird weather in early June.

Anyway, I'm tempted this year to plant immediately after the first frost, when I pull the tomatoes and peppers. Theoretically, that should be in mid-September.

Late September or early October does seem to the best time if for no other reason than most of the good spots in the garden have something growing right now. If you have an empty spot that you're itching to fill until then a quick crop of lettuce, radishes or a cover crop of buckwheat might work.

I've found that areas that get the most sunshine in the cold months produce more garlic.

Barb,
I've planted anywhere from early October to December last year. In fact I received some bulbs in mid Jan and planted them. And they did just fine. I'm a little warmer than most of you. So imagine yours will do better if planted earlier. I mulch mine 4-6 inches deep and the garlic comes up through it. The cold will freeze the tops back some but never kills them all the way back.

I don't use blood meal. I use bone meal, cottonseed meal, soybean meal, manure and alfalfa meal. The blood meal when I used it attracted unwanted visitors. I know many use it. I've found other sources of N that work well for me and also I used mainly the suggestions made by the two labs that performed soil tests for me last fall. And blood meal wasn't mentioned by either. I try to use a fast release and a slow release source of N. Also here where we don't have as much rain N doesn't leach out like it does in wet areas.

I like your selection of varieties. I'll be interested in reading your impressions next summer. I'll post what I'm planting later. Jay

Thank you! The wall block is a good idea, Dan, and so is separating the hardneck and softnecks. David, thanks for the insight planting a little earlier. I know I got caught a bit unprepared with the early cold last fall. Gicore, this is a full sun all day spot, so it should work. Elkwe, I'm glad you approve of the varieties. I wanted to try a bit of everything and see what I like. I may skip the blood meal and use the other meals. Moisture probably won't be an issue. Nearly all the monsoon moisture in recent weeks went south of here and we are very dry.
Yay! A new project!
Thanks for the tips!
Barb

Barb, make sure you mix your fill with native soil so you get good drainage, and you'll be happier.

Jay, how did your 'Music' turn out?

I'm thinking of dumping a couple vars and replacing with 'Music' and 'Duganski', both hardnecks so I can use the scapes too...

Dan

Checking my spreadsheet I see that I planted my garlic on Oct. 7 last year. It's all cured and trimmed now.

I'll take some of these and re-plant in a few weeks. I'll probably plant less than last year, though. This is a lot of garlic for us.

Is it too early to start planting garlic? Is there a downside such as affecting the flavor, winter hardiness or something else?

I personally think it is winter hardiness, but not 100% sure. My schedule now looks like I'll be doing mine second week of Oct & that's ~normal for me.

Dan

I read something that said ideal time was as close as you could get to the autumnal equinox. Now that I'm trying to find the source, I can't and it probably wasn't specific to our region. Since I'm close to doing my first planting, I'm going to defer to the more seasoned growers. I'm tracking down liquid seaweed to make a baking soda/seaweed soak for the garlic overnight, to be followed by a few minute soak in rubbing alcohol before planting. I'll probably try one of the many "hydroponic" stores cropping up everywhere to see if they carry it. If any of you have a different plan, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
Jnfr, that is a beautiful batch of garlic!
Barb

Today I'm prepping a couple of rows, and then breaking up the heads and selecting the cloves. I'd like to get mine planted over the next week and get them watered in and mulched before the irrigation is off, which, last year, was mid-October.