"I planted a few cloves in the pot as I was told that since our winters are so harsh, I could try bringing it into our basement and letting it go 'dormant'."

Midsummer to fall is the time for garlic to be dormant. If left to its own devices the leaves die down completely and all signs of the plant disappear aboveground (this is what happened with yours and goes along with your second question). It's not dead, it's just waiting for fall to start growing. Then winter comes and it doesn't grow during winter but as soon as the temps start rising it quickly springs to life. Garlic is very hardy and should survive your winters.

"I know garlic is best planted in the fall, but I read that you can plant in the spring as well."

Fall planted is best. As I said above, the cloves have time to put down roots and establish themselves and will be ready to grow as soon as it can. If you spring plant you have to do it in early spring as soon as the ground thaws enough that you can get the cloves in the ground. But the resulting bulbs from spring planted cloves won't be as large as those planted in the fall.

"When should I 'harvest' the garlic?"

You're already late on harvesting. The time to harvest garlic is in midsummer when you notice that about half its leaves are brown. The green leaves that are left when you harvest will become the bulb wrappers. If you wait until all the leaves are brown the bulb wrappers will disintegrate and the bulbs won't store long. If you do it sooner you might lose some bulb size but depending on how much sooner the size difference will be negligable. Always better to harvest earlier than later.

So what do you do now? Dig around in your pot and garden and you should find the now dormant bulbs if they haven't rotted. They will probably have exposed cloves at this point (or they might just be rounds) but they should still be usable and you'll be able to replant them in the fall (if they are worth replanting). However, they will not store as long as garlic that was harvested at the right time.

"Should I mulch the vegetable garden and pick it next summer (in which case it will have been in the ground for a year)?" "What should I do with the pot? Mulch it and leave it outside like the vegetable garden?"

It is best to dig up and replant garlic every year. Leaving them in the ground for another year does not increase their size. In fact it does the opposite. Every clove will resprout and they will grow in a clump and compete with each other resulting in smaller bulbs. So this goes with my above paragraph. Harvest now and replant in the fall. If you choose to plant in the pot again, bury the pot up to the rim in the garden so that it's not exposed aboveground and leave it there for the winter (burying the pot helps insulate it and protects both it and the plants inside from temperature extremes). In spring you can pull the pot out of the ground.

Some photos of the plants (the one in the garden and the hardneck in the pot) would help to go along with your descriptions of the leaves as I'm having a somewhat difficult time visualizing them.

Rodney

Hi Rodney,
Thank you so much for your response!
I have added a photo below - the one of the one garlic with 'leaves' in my garden.
I know I'm late on harvesting, but had I harvested mid-summer, my garlic would only have been in the ground for 4-6 weeks (as I mentioned, our spring was incredibly late). At this point, they've been in the ground for about 8 weeks.

So I should dig up all the little cloves and replant them in a couple of weeks (when our first frost is expected)?

In my opinion, you should give up on the cloves with grass-like greens. The growth is stunted. Here in NH I grow hard neck garlic. The scape is the flower blossom and it is edible and tasty provided you cut it off before it starts to make a second circle (they loop around). I think the hardneck actually has a stem that goes right to the root base. I don't think that once a plant has been stressed as much as yours has been that you should try to revive it nor try to use as a start for new plants.

I grow garlic, planted in the fall, and harvested about mid-July. It's hardneck which is hardier than softneck. If I were you, I'd get some new garlic from a reputable supplier, plant about mid-September or so (you want it warm enough for root growth, but don't want top growth until spring) and then mulch it heavily over and around the whole garlic bed, perhaps 6' deep of something that will be fluffy enough to provide good insulation. Don't plant in raised beds which get colder in winter than in ground beds.

I'd also dig up what you have in your pot and garden and use it soon if it's in good shape.

Agree with the others. Harvest the ones you've planted. You could replant yours but it would probably be a couple years or so before the bulbs sized back up. So unless the garlic you are growing are either hard to find or expensive to buy, it would be best to start with fresh stock planted in the fall. And as has been mentioned, hardneck garlic are usually hardier and will probably do better for you than softnecks.

Rodney

Alright. Thanks so much everyone!!!