Hamiltongardener I agree with justaguy. I've never heard that tomatoes and garlic dislike each other. In fact, tomatoes grow well in soil where onions have been, and aren't they in the same family with garlic? Here is a link that might be useful: Companion planting

I'm not sure there is a definitive answer. When I froze my garlic, I did so after the Fall planting was complete (in October). By that point, all cloves were well cured, and presumably lower in moisture. All cloves were peeled & frozen in a zippered freezer bag. As long as the peeled cloves are dry, they won't stick together, and could be removed as needed. That frozen garlic was just OK. The cloves lost quite a bit of their flavor, and did not hold their shape if cooked. I find that dehydration preserves more of the flavor, stores longer without refrigeration, and can be easily ground into fresh garlic powder as needed. I slice the cloves into 1/4" pieces, they dry into very hard chips which hold their shape if added to cooked dishes. I place crushed dried garlic in a pepper mill... fresh ground garlic has the same flavor advantages as fresh ground black pepper. Although I usually peel garlic before dehydration, I've been able to skip that when processing small hard-to-peel cloves, or large quantities. If the root end is cut off & the cloves sliced with skin on, that skin can be shaken off & winnowed away after dehydration.

Music. Hardy, widely adapted, dependable, stores very well for a hardneck, large easy to use cloves, bulbs can get large, strong flavor (so easy to cook with). I still have some usable bulbs from last year's July/August harvest. VietNamese Red makes a nice, milder companion variety, but does not store as well; so does Siberian. I also like Japanese, also large cloves and seems to be also very dependable. Big robust plants, seems to be a bit earlier than Music. These all have the added feature of scapes for early summer cooking. Those are my favorites, but zone 8 suggests that the Creoles might be just what you would like, even though they are not so well adapted to my Minnesota garden.

No idea at all - they could be hardneck, softneck or elephant and I'd probably scratch a leaf to make sure it smells of garlic. I'm not sure where in Zone 5 you are but normally garlic is planted in the fall and harvested in early summer up here. Right now, I'd do exactly what you are doing and also put some kind of marker as to where they are. If they're garlic, they're probably going to stop growing soon and die back to the bulb by around the end of july. After that, they'll rest a bit and start growing again in the late fall and create heads for you next year.