September and October

In my personal experience -

1 - no. I have actually moved planting back later and later to avoid top growth. My goal plant date was always columbus day - but its been getting later and later. This past year was november 1-3. You do not want top growth before the ground freezes. Think of other fall planted bulbs - tulips, daffodils, etc. You just want established roots to prevent heaving.

2 - Multiple fall plantings will not spread out your harvest. They will all start to sprout at the same time - when temperatures and daylight are right . What might help spread out your harvest is planting some early in spring. Most likely though - those heads will not be as large as your fall planted garlic.

I agree with Ekgrows. I've been planting in the later half of October whish limits the fall top growth to an inch or 2 most years.

I also did not mulch my patch at all last fall and I think my harvest will the best I've ever had judging by the thickness of the stalks. We had a few nights in a row that got at least -15F and it didn't phase it a bit. It seems the mulch sometimes hinders the early growth in the spring if it can't poke through, gets trapped under the much and doesn't get any sun.

You might be able to spread out your harvest by growing several different types, Some types are early and others are late. I grow a porcelain, a rocambole, and a purple stripe and my harvest of both scapes and bulbs is spread out over about 3 weeks.

I too plant my garlic beds later rather than earlier. For me that's usually the last week of October. Gives them time to get seated in, but not enough time for them to grow out. I've used leaf mulch in the past, but last year I used pine straw instead since I had a lot, and they seem to love it. The bed is very plush this spring.

Garlic wants to grow like other bulbs, so in the outdoor garden they grow according to the weather, and there really isn't a way to get them to stagger out. Best you can do there is plant different varieties with different maturity dates as has been suggested.

However, you can try forcing garlic indoors like one can do with spring bulbs. I tend to grow garlic greens throughout the winter- just a little pot of little bulbs, and snip the greens like chives when I want to use them. I succession plant through the winter. I haven't tried forcing them out to the point of trying to eat bulbs, but you could try it and see if it works.

Last year I pulled a mother bed, and had a lot of tiny bulbis/seed from split stems and flower heads- those can grow into garlic too given a year or two. Right now I'm growing some out like chives since bulb forcing time is pretty much over for me. I'll scatter the rest in one of my big containers next week and see what I get for seed garlic for planting up this fall. Maybe start another mother bed.

Out of curiosity, what is the difference for you between freshly harvested and cured garlic heads that makes you prefer freshly harvested?