Sprouting Too Early?

Garlic is extremely hardy and it always seems to know what it is supposed to do and when.Here in zone5 I just plant and forget it,never protect it unless some leaves happen to build up in that bed while they are blowing around in fall.Never had a problem with Garlic!!!!

-- Southwestern Ontario Canada Zone5b

Thanks, Countrygal – I suspect you are right, telling me not to worry, I just have no experience with garlic, and hope I didn’t do wrong covering it with the pine branches, making it too warm too early.

-- There's a box?

If you believe you kept the garlic too warm, then I would keep it uncovered and just cover it back up if a drastic drop of temperature is in the forecast.
and I agree with countrygal, my mom in Germany grows garlic. One year it grows, the second you harvest :) and leave some to set seeds, distribute those in your yard and you will never be without garlic.

-- Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Gone Tropical Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

I’ve never grown garlic either, but 2ltr soda bottles with the bottoms cut off make great cloches. And you can remove the cap as needed.

-- Never do what you can't undo, until you have considered what you can't do once you have done it. Robin Hobb Assassins Apprentice

Well, I have uncovered it, and I don’t think we’re supposed to get below 15 F anytime soon, so I think I’m safe. We’ll see what the garlic is like at harvest (whenever that is) – but I’ve been looking over the Johnny Seeds catalog and have one picked out for fall delivery. Planning on growing lots of garlic and lots of basil to make, well, lots of pesto.

-- There's a box?

If you like the garlic you are growing now,when you harvest it just save some and plant it back in the fall.

-- Southwestern Ontario Canada Zone5b

That would be penny-wise, yes. But we’ll see – it was sort of a crap-shoot planting this grocery store unknown – they looked fine, but the cloves weren’t that big.

-- There's a box?

I bet those small home grown cloves are potent! ;-)
the elephant garlic seems to be very mild compared to the small ones I remember my mom has in her yard

-- Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Gone Tropical Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

I only grow a hardneck garlic and have for a number of years from my own cloves.When I originally bought mine it was from an organic grower at the Farmers Market.I like mine as it has a great flavor and stores very well through winter.
The thing is you want a nice pungent garlic,and then you decide which cooking method to use for the final taste of the garlic in the dish you are making.So if you want that garlic to be mild,then you cook it so it will be.
All I can say is Garlic is the easiest thing to grow,as long as you plant late in fall.

-- Southwestern Ontario Canada Zone5b