Looks like a normal head of garlic to me?

Agree with Jean. Plant the cloves in the fall, fertilize in spring, and harvest when most of the leaves are dying back in mid-summer. Plant them about 6 inches apart and keep other plants from crowding/competing with them for biggest heads.

Peter- The photo is deceiving and makes the garlic look bigger than it is. I thought it was pretty good sized at first too but then I re-read what the OP's said. It's a little smaller than a golf ball.

Rodney

Also, if you allow the stem to flower it usually reduces the size of the bulb. Most often cutting off the scape when it's a shepard's hook results in a larger garlic bulb.

Cindy

Yes plant in fall, cut the twirly head off for a bigger bulb. There are hundreds of varieties of garlic, some get larger than others. Growing them for decorative purposes will probably always produce smaller bulbs because you cannot give them the space and food needs that you could if you grew them in a vegetable garden. I grow 30 varieties of garlic 6-15 plants of each, It takes less space than you may think to grow way more than even a garlic loving family can eat.

Now is the time to order garlic to plant for next year.

I have collected my varieties over several years, once you have a variety you will always have it, unless you have a crop failure. Hard-Neck will likely grow best in your area. Music is a good one to start with :)

Is it softneck garlic? Because that is all I ever get growing softnecks. It looks like it is based on the size of that stem if that bulb is golf ball sized. You are in a hardneck climate.

Thank y ou all so much! It’s obvious that I know nothing about
garlic! Other than we eat a lot, and my husband, who does the shopping, complains sometimes that the quality is poor. I
thought, hey, I can grow it for effect and enjoy eating it too.

Indeed, they were planted close together. I
think I will take the cloves left that I can find and re-plant those in my
flower garden for the decorative effect. Right now I can’t tell where most of the
plants even were. I’ll leave those alone, maybe move them if the hidden cloves
sprout in spring.

Then, I will buy some eating garlic and
plant that spaced as you have as suggested. I am in zone 5 Chicago. This bed is partly shaded. It was my former
vegetable garden, til it got too shady for tomatoes. All I am growing there is a
little asparagus and rhubarb, and some variegated money plant. This is where I
place plants that I am not ready to plant in my regular garden.

I don’t have a whole lot of space for it but
I would like to try. What variety and source would you recommend?

I would advise against planting supermarket garlic. It is softneck garlic typically and not suited for your climate. Take a look at the Allium forum for some sources of seed garlic. I just bought some from Big Red Barn, but there are many good sources of seed garlic.

The size of a garlic head is influence by the size of the garlic clove planted, water, sun, temperature, fertility and friability of the soil.

I have been surprised at how small some bulbs for sale at the farmers markets are. A gardening friend asked me how I got bulbs so big. I think it is the variety I grow and don't remember what it is. I bought several bulbs from local garlic growers. A 6 x6' patch can grow a lot of garlic. Mine is hard neck and I remove the scapes in late June here in NH.

I grow both hardnecks and softnecks with success. There was only one time when my softnecks didn't size up properly and that was the summer following the brutal winter we had a few years back. Otherwise they have been just as reliable for me as my hardnecks. The company I got all my original stock from was in Wisconsin.

Considering the OP has mentioned that the friend they got the garlic from grows it for the "twirly ornamental seedheads" aka scapes, the garlic in question is sure to be a hardneck type.

Rodney

I'm learning a lot here! So, it is the hardneck type that has the twirly ornamental seedheads /scapes? I expect that my planting them too closely togther is largely responsible for the small size. The planting was meant to be temporary, more like heeling in; to keep them alive until I re-planted them properly. But I never did re-plant them.

The soil is heavily amended and very soft.

Yes, I use the scapes just like garlic. There are recipes for pickling it and also eating them as a vegetable but you need to pick them early for them to be tender. I read that after they curl into a loop, they will grow straight up again and that signals it's time to harvest the bulbs. I usually miss one or two. A friend dries and paints seedheads of a giant ornamental allium to add color to her garden but they don't last long in the weather.