Broadback wrote:

Recently the question was asked if it was too late to plant garlic. the
general consensus was yes. However I have just received and email from
Dobies who claim now is a good time to plant them.

I meant to reply to that thread, but never quite got around to it.

I ordered a couple of heads from Suttons back in February, which duly
turned up a week or so later. I've never grown garlic before (true of
many things) and to the slightly old fashioned _Vegetable & Herb Expert_
by D G Hessayon they're strange exotic food and don't get much of a
writeup. So all I had to go on was this advice that came with the
bulbs:

"Garlic Cloves Solent Wight

Keep in a light cool position until planting time or split into cloves
and plant in pots of compost to transplant outdoors during March.
Plant the sections (cloves) of ech bulb just below the soil surfact
March-April, alloing about 10cm (4in) between clover [sic (-: ] and
20cm (8in) between rows. Store in bunches in a dry airy shed for use
in winter. (2 bulbs)"

During March, I planted three out of four heads, some in a row on their
own, some between rows of carrots in the naïve hope of avoiding carrot
fly (never grown carrots before either, so I don't know how worried I
should be).

The original row I planted has done nothing at all (that was before a
cold snap, so they may not have liked that) but the ones protecting my
carrots are growing pretty strongly.

So what will I find when I come to dig them out at the end of the
summer? Should I plant out the last head (expected 2 but got 4!) soon,
or wait until September/October and do it then?

Peter