yes, you can move the plant. make sure it's a big pot and dig a big hole around the garlic plant to get all the roots.

I was in the process of being convinced that an extra month of root growth in the fall would yield 20% larger bulbs next July. Some posts in GarlicLady's poll thread were very persuasive, and then talking with the farmer mentioned above cinched it. He really knows his stuff for growing garlic in my neck of the woods. It looks like I will get a chance to test it out as I have planted about half of my intended stock of several varieties in half the bed I currently have available. The two pepper beds have very similar soil and positioning, so that would make the test particularly valid. I may take your advice and plant a few in my allium bed as well. My reasoning for rotating is two-fold. The primary rationale is to rotate my other crops which are more succeptible to wilts and other soil diseases, particularly my beloved peppers, and the banes of my garden: tomatoes (my tomatoes seem to attract every known pest and disease  this year I had hornworm, colorado potato beetle, blossom end rot, late blight and perhaps either fusarium wild and or verticulum wilt). The other reason is that my new buddy farmer advised me that penicillium mold is a real concern here, and that I should rotate my garlic on a 4-5 year basis (he said that if I got penicillium in my bed it would be unuseable for garlic for as long as ten years). With all that said, I was/am concidering planting onions in this year's allium bed again next year. I eat copious (even ridiculous) amounts of onion, but they are a much more expendable component of my garden than garlic or peppers (the king and queen of my domain). So... I may take garden lad's suggestion and plant a few varieties in the unoccupied allium bed. If nothing else, I will plant bulbils there.

A few years back, my husband pulled a tick off his leg. A couple of weeks later I made him go to the doctor to get the bull's eye rash checked out and it was Lyme disease. We did a lot of research about ticks in our back yard that year. Keep the grass and weeds cut SHORT. They hang out in the tall stuff. And my husband went to Lowe's and got something designed to kill ticks and thoroughly sprayed the perimeter of the yard according to the label instructions. He did it for two years, once or twice a year, probably three or four times a year the first year. But he really hasn't had to spray again. And we keep our grass cut and weeds out of the fence rows. Spots won't make ticks let go either. They may prevent, but no matter what the label says, they don't kill ticks. We got a new dog and started him on Advantix immediately. The groomer pulled several ticks off him even after he got his spot. We're sure the ticks came with him because the other dogs don't have ticks and he was from out in the country and had been in the woods shortly before he came to us. I'm not one for a lot of chemicals in my backyard, I like the birds and the rabbits and all that. But I love my husband more and Lyme disease is a scary, scary thing. Don't mess around with this, it's not worth it! Your dogs can get Lyme too.

To the OP - the reason you never found the sharpening steel very effective is because a steel does not sharpen, it hones; there's a difference, and its simple and important to remember. Basically, the edge of a knife is very very thin. German knives, in particular, use *relatively* soft metal in their blades (compared to modern Japanese knives, especially). Just in normal use, the edge deforms on a microscopic level, interfering with cutting ability...when you hone using a steel, you are essentially bending the edge back into shape. You are not, however, removing any metal at all. You should hone often. Doing it everytime you start a job is not too often. If you do this, you will maintain your initial sharpness much much longer. Note that on many of the manual pull-through systems, and some electric, the "final" sharpening level is actually a honing level, so you can use that instead. Note also that "diamond steels" are a different beast entirely; they are much more abrasive, and are best treated as true sharpeners. Regardless of how often and religiously you hone, however, at a certain point the edge will still get dull...and at that point, you need to sharpen by actually removing some metal to reshape and sharpen the edge. To do this, you need something more abrasive than a steel - a diamond rod, ceramic rods, stones, a mechanical sharpener, etc. Practically speaking, this is something you probably only *have* to do once or maybe twice a year. Learning to use sharpening stones is relatively easy, and they can be relatively affordable, but it does take some commitment and a bit of practice to be able to hold the correct angle. The systems like the the EdgePro and Wicked Edge get you the same results consistently without requiring as much user skill/commitment, but they are a bit expensive initially. For a cheaper option that still requires less commitment/skill than flat stones, and is very well reviewed, you might look at the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. Note, however, that all of these methods take a while to use - they aren't a quick 5 minute task. The electric sharpeners are quicker and have almost no learning curve. The downside is they are harder on your knives (removing more metal more quickly), and the edges they produce are serviceable but not at the same level a skilled manual sharpener can achieve. For many people, the tradeoff is worth it. Do you live close to a Williams Sonoma? I believe they are currently offering to sharpen one knife free, with an electric sharpener (Chef's Choice, I think) on Saturdays. I would recommend you take one in to them and get a hand's on demonstration, and then you will have an actual edge on your own knife to test with. If possible, I would also take another of your knives to a good professional hand sharpener (will probably cost between $1 an $2 per inch). Then, I would see whether the difference is worth it, to you. I'd also second the recommendation for the "An Edge in the Kitchen" book. There is also a book you can get a Sur la Table called "Knives Cooks Love" which is a good overview and is currently on sale for $4.99.