As we near the end of October I shudder when I look back at the weather this month ...cold and rainy!  We were hit with a severe frost mid-month and it came quickly and struck hard; leaving my gardens a mess of mushy leaves and frostbitten vegetables.  This past weekend we did have one day of nice weather and I was able to collect mulch to cover the garlic beds.  I still need a thicker layer and will apply it when the weather drys up a bit.  For the mulch I gathered pine needles and ground up leaves (we ran over piles of leaves with the lawn mower).  I should mention I planted about 500 cloves of garlic (7 different varieties).  Fall is the time to plant garlic since it requires 9 months in the ground - we will harvest mid July here.  The garlic is planted about 2 inches deep, 4 inches apart in rows that are a foot (12 inches) apart. 
  There are 3 hardneck varieties; Chrysalis Purple, Shvelisi (Chesnok Red) and Persian Star along with 4 softneck varieties; Chet's Italian Red, Inchelium Red, Broadleaf Czech and Lorz Italian.  The hardnecks have larger cloves and more flavorful, but the storage life is much less than the softneck.  Softnecks are usually the type found in our grocery stores and they can be braided together - the stalks are soft as opposed to the stiff stalks on the hardnecks.