It's Not Too Late to Plant Garlic

Today I ordered garlic seed for my garden.
I was reminded to do so but the horrid garlic I found in the pantry.  My dad bought it at the grocery last weekend.  It looked just fine, but it was dried, shriveled, and disgusting.  Compared to the beautiful stuff I have been buying at the Farmer's Market, that stuff was garbage, not even fit for the compost heap.
Garlic should be planted after first frost so my order wasn't late.  The only problem was finding a company that still had garlic seed in stock.  I wanted to get some from Hood River Garlic in Oregon.  Their website is so informative that I wanted to send them some business.  Unfortunately, their stock is pretty limited this late in the game.  I did find the varieties I was interested in on a site called Turtle Creek Trading Company.  I bought "Susanville" and "Chesnok" for my dad's garden and my own plot.
Over the weekend I pulled out the rest of the "Royal Burgundy Bush Beans" to dry them for seeds.  This late in the season I can't expect to harvest many more beans so I decided to prep the bed for garlic.  I left the bean plants minus the bean pods in the garden to decompose into the soil.  Today I mowed up some more leaves and grass clippings and piled them on top of the bean plants.  Then I topped the bed off with four buckets of compost from the compost pile.  I'll let the bugs and microbes work their way into leaves and grass and stuff and add a bit of water later.  There were so many nice worms in the compost.  They should have my soil beautifully amended by the time my garlic seed order arrives.
Locally grown garlic is so much better than the stuff that can be bought at the grocery store.  If you can plant some in your own garden, do give it a try.  If not, get some at the local farmer's market.  Remember that soft neck varieties store longer than hard neck varieties.
For more information on garlic cultivation, check out Hood River Garlic's informative site at http://www.hoodrivergarlic.com/.  They offer many varieties, but currently stock is limited.  I found more varieties at http://www.turtlecreektradingco.com/.  I'm looking forward to its arrival.