Too late after too much water, that's MY unprofessional opinion.

Looks like you planted the whole bulb. You should have broken the bulb into individual cloves and planted them separately.

They do look like you picked them early.

In my experience, when the bulbs split like that and start growing again it is because they had too much water too late in their season--at least, that is what I have experienced past years when we had a lot of rain in June, like we are having now :( right at the time when my softneck is just about ready to harvest.

this person didn't know your supposed to plant each clove instead of the whole bulb. he/she just paid a lot of money to make a mistake. this fall, plant one clove at a time about 6" apart and 2" deep.

Well that is the benefit of just gardening, you can make mistakes and learn from them. Next year you start with more knowledge about how to grow the plants and which varieties are best for you and where you live.

This is what I got from planting the inner little cloves in the core of a head of softneck garlic in a bunch rather than separate.
http://www.thegardenforums.org/download/file.php?id=1207&t=1

If they'd been planted individually they wouldn't have been much larger... The other full sized cloves nearby made normal heads.

My garden is a composite of my mistakes, but planting whole or partial garlic heads together is not one of them. I planted, in October, only the largest cloves. This must be some stage of development, either before the skins appear to encase or after and (as I fear) with too much water.

Here is a picture of the garlic still in the ground. Does the green/brown semi-standing-ness change anything?

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/allium/hpgal0614044029645.html

Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Post with the garlic still growing.

I don't think it would be before the skins encases the bulbs, if anything it would be after. As the leaves die the paper encasing the bulbs dries, so if there is no longer any paper it was either too late or possibly as you said too much water.

As the plants did not look like they were dying back, it was logical to not try to dig them out earlier. The early variety of garlic I grow in Southern California is ready to pick in April, although some needs until May. If you plan on growing the same variety you might want to try just digging around a plant earlier on to see how it looks under the ground even if the plant does not seem to be dying back yet. If you do it carefully you can put back the dirt and the bulb will continue growing.

And you can still eat the garlic you have picked, it just might not store as well, or try to plant the cloves again so no total loss.