Regarding garlic, is this you guys/gals experience? I plant mine in October and it comes up pretty soon after that and gets to about a foot tall. The plants survive the winter cold without growing any more. Then they start growing again when it warms up early spring.
My climate is quite different, but this is what I do. I save the biggest cloves for planting, and plant mid-October, after prepping the bed with compost. I mulch with straw if I have it, leaves if I don't. Sometimes they sprout in the fall, sometimes not.I plant my garlic 6 inches apart in rows, with the rows 6 inches apart.
When I start seeing green poke through the straw in the spring, I pull the straw back a bit, and leave it around but not over the plants. Add some compost.
I have been planting them about 6" apart, rows the same.
This year, the bulbs in the row I dug have looked a little smaller than last year. Maybe a better way to put it is, I didn't see as many, "holy cow! that's a big bulb of garlic!" bulbs.
The other row might be different. Half of it is a different variety, and based on the size of the plants, they'll be smaller bulbs.