You are in Hardiness ZONE 7b so you might have some time before the ground freezes.
You know your climate and what might be expected this year better than I.
Garlic is a very winter-hardy plant, you just want the planted cloves to have enough time to develop a root system and maybe the beginning of some green top growth.

https://www.plantmaps.com/19952 

I'm further north in Zone 6b. In the first rows I planted the last week of September I've been seeing some green pop up above the ground. They all don't show themselves at the same time but I know they are all developing roots. October weather has been mild this year, temps have been anywhere between the high 30's some nights to up to near 80 some days, but mostly in the 40's at night to near 60 in the day. Rainfall has been moderate, so good enough to keep the soil moist to promote root growth.
We are supposed to get another heatwave next week for a little while anyway with nights about 60 and days around 70.

Regardless, hard freezes seem far away yet, but mulching garlic beds with straw of shredded fall leaves is a great idea to insulate the soil from the cold and hold in moisture.. I use shredded dry leaves since I have 3 large maple trees that supply a lot of material and its free.

Thanks ray. My mind was following basically what you’ve told me. Hope I have luck. I’ve read about cutting some of the stalks that curl? Any idea??

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I think you mean the scapes, that's the reproductive stalk of the plant.
They are delicious with a mild garlic flavor, chopped up and sauteed in olive oil and used in recipes. Cut them early when they are curly and tender well before they straighten out. and the buds open. The scape will get fibrous and tough then.
Hard neck garlic doesn't produce seeds, if you don't cut the scapes it'll produce bulbils which are tiny garlic bulbs that can be replanted but it takes some years of replanting to get them to a usable size bulb with cloves.
Cutting the scapes early will force the plant to put its energy into producing larger bulbs and cloves too.

Looking good, Robert! I know this question has been asked a thousand times - what’s the story on harvesting some of the deer for the freezer?

You have to get a nuisance permit and they only give them if you have a fence (I do) and can prove damages to crops. The Department of Natural resources doesn't care that a deer ran through, and damaged my fence last week. No crops were harmed in the making of that mess.

I don't want to shoot them to wound, with a .22, plus it's illegal. And I don't want to shoot them with a 30-06, too loud and illegal. So if I get a crossbow I can keep it under the radar in the summer months. Plus this time of year I could just hunt in my yard legally if I had a crossbow.

Otherwise there is only a 2 week gun season and I think a special gun season for doe. Even with the various seasons and "management" from the state, we're still overrun with deer. Their management isn't working. That's why I said they should have a continuous open season--whatever weapon, whatever time of year. I could bag a doe while I walked to the mail box. I doubt that will happen, so I build my fences 8 ft tall.

Planted another row of garlic today. Think I’m done for the year. Ray what type fertilizer you like on garlic?

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I prep the rows with an organic dry fertilizer at planting, Epsoma Plant-Tone or similar, and then hit them with a liquid Fish Hydrolysate or Emulsion in the spring.. A local organic garlic farmer recommended that routine, and I've been doing it for years with no issues. We have clay soils up here that hold onto nutrients well with minimal leaching so it's a slow-release feeding of the soil that way and it carries the plants through the season through harvest.
You can do it with synthetic fertilizers too but take it easy with high-nitrogen fertilizers after spring. Too much nitrogen they say will impede bulb development and size.

Thank you ray^

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Do you ever sit back and think of next years garden, in October?

I've skipped over February and March wood choppin' time. There is some stuff I want to do in that area. I have less than a quarter acre flat, along the creek, on the other side of the county route. Got several giant sycamores over there, but needs the small trees removed. Definitely needs some choppin'...

Instead I mainly think about gathering all the materials to build that 9,000 sq footer.

But thing I come back to the most is, "I want my corn to be good next year." Then, "I hope it rains more next summer" is a close second. Third is, "I got to figure out how to grow some tobacco" But really, I want my corn to be good next year. :)

I'm going to build the new garden close to the eastern most pool of my creek. It's the most shallow of the 3 deep pools. Still, it never dried up during the extreme drought--which is ongoing. The water pump will do fine there. So at least I got that angle covered.

First row of garlic is up. Think I should’ve planted all of it then. I’m satisfied I’ll still get something out of the second row but it’s cooling off

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It's gonna cost just under a grand to build a 120x75 (9,000 sq ft) garden with 8 ft tall fence.8-[

Gonna need 400 pounds of lime, 150 pounds of Triple 19 and about 50 pounds of that 30-0-2 for that garden alone.😟

Ouch^^. Maybe start a compost pile to ease up on some expenses???


So my garlic looks really nice. Both rows look like they’re gonna “overwinter” just fine. Planted some onions too but I have no idea what I’m doing there. Just gave it a go

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Robert what are you figuring you most expensive part of that garden is gonna be?

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It's the 500 feet worth of 4 ft metal fence. The fencing is around 100 dollars per 100 feet. The poles were a close second, but I think I found some locally that should reduce the cost by a couple hundred dollars. My initial estimate came from a Lowe's that's 1 1/2 hrs away.

The overall estimate doesn't include the deer netting or the fertilizers though. But like you mentioned to me, the lime will last 2 or 3 yrs.

As far as the garden goes it's "buy once cry once." It will be our 3rd and final garden to build, although we have room for more... But nearly 14,000 sq ft will yield more than enough crops for us to eat fresh, can, freeze and give away. Plus 14k sq ft is a lot for one couple to take care of...

Got my fence components in yesterday. Ordered Saturday, delivered the following Monday.

400 ft of metal fencing

Twenty-two 3/4 inch 10 ft steel poles

six 6 ft posts and some rebar for the gates

1,000 zip ties (Won't need that many Lol)

Will get the deer netting at a later date

Got everything measured and half the poles slammed in. Gonna be a big un...

New garden completed. 9,000 sq footah.

Took us about 5 hrs yesterday and about 4 today. Thousand dollars worth of materials.

Wife and I are sore AF. Took some pictures but don't think I was able to get the entire garden in frame.

I'll go through the pics later on and try to post one through Imgur. I'm hoping that once we add the 4 ft of black deer netting the pictures will show the size of the garden better.

Over and out...

Rent part of it out... 👍

Sounds good Robert. I started a compost bin. Gonna try to stay with that. Maybe see how it works out for garden material. Shredded paper and leaves currently. Kitchen scraps. Will see how it goes.

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Got part of my all garden roto tilled before the ground froze. Not sure how many sq feet it is, but my old garden has been shrunk twice before and I think it will be under 5000 square feet. I imagine it will be a lot of work next summer. Still need to move the fences in on two sides and get the rest of the garden cleaned up and tilled.