I grow Garlic (Soft neck californian Giant) in UK and pick while stems and some leaves are still Green as this (as mentioned earlier) ensures good "paper" coverage and hence good keeping. I guage when to pick on date and condition of lower leaves discolouring and use thickness of stem to guage what size of bulb the plant has.

I move my crop into my drying shed (I have a 20" x 12" shed used for everything just change its name to suit purpose) and lay the garlic on shelves, over hung up ladders on a table anf on the floor.

I have just harvested this years crop of about 120 plants and still have about a dozen Garlic left in store from last year but will now ditch as the new crop is now here.

I also grow Elephant Garlic which is "hard Neck" and still growing - I have grown some of this from saved cloves but these have produced small bulbes about the size of a golf ball but solid - no cloves - any ideas why?