So if this is happening, can I just go plant this? Keep in mind I’m in Virginia, the weather has swung so much that we’ve used our heat and AC in the last week and all I have is a tiny condo patio that gets decent sunlight.
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Can’t guarantee you’ll get garlic, but it also doesn’t hurt to try. Garlic is generally planted in late fall here and hardneck garlic is more suited to VA climate than the softneck that is sold in grocery stores (that probably comes from CA), but you might get something. At least you know they didn’t use a sprout inhibitor.
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I currently have zero plants anyway so I’ll give it a shot!
Separate the cloves before you plant them. Each one should form a new head.
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When I plant here in the Spring, I’m used to snows in March and April. I never cover my garden any more than I would cover the grass in the lawn which has also greened nicely.
It was 18F this morning, spent the day in the 20’s, same predicted for tomorrow. Continued lows in the 20’s this week with one night down to 15F. I had chives up, and seedings of collards, kale, arugula, lettuce, a bit of spinach and catnip. Now I’m wondering if any of it will make it until Tuesday, and then the rest of the week. There’s a thin layer of snow over some of the lawn and garden, but some it melted where I have collards so they are pretty exposed. Will I be starting over here soon? I’m kicking myself for not picking some chives before this rolled in.
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My plum hasn’t started flowering yet which is later than normal and tells me not to plant other things yet.
Which is helpful since otherwise I no longer have any sense of time 
I wouldn’t be surprised if you lose all/most of the annuals
I’d be surprised if any of the annuals make it. I supposed that includes my heirloom garlic plants too, thought I’m hoping if my perrenial chives make it that the garlic will come back. This morning’s low is 15F, high predicted of 25F, low tonight of 12F. Everything is in raised beds. I don’t think I could have covered them enough to have protected them.
Most years I plant earlier than recommended to prevent slugs. In my dry climate I have a hard time keeping seedlings moist without attracting slugs, so if I can get plants established before slug season starts it helps. Obviously it didn’t work this year. I’m not sure if this is a result of normal seasonal variation, as in, that plan works 9 out of 10 years and this is the one it doesn’t, or climate change which will lead to more exreme events and shorter growing seasons here. We had an early, very cold spell in October last fall.
Well, I will replant as I need to when it warms up again. I let the garlic go to seed a few years, I have the bulbils from the flowers in 2017 and a small number of honest to god seeds from 2018 and 2017 (in 2019 I think I harvested earlier and didn’t let things go to seed). According to the internet, it’s harder to grow garlic from seed, but it also promotes biodiversity since it has DNA from two plants instead of being a clone or the parent plant the way a bulb or bulbil is. Maybe I can use them to re-establish garlic for next season if I lose all of the bulbs this year. I planted a few bulbils in the fall and some of them were up too.
It’s still snowing. Sigh.
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I would think the chives and garlic will make it. Their tops will definitely be singed off though.
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Anecdotally: in past years my chives and garlic have survived temps that low.
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I cut off the tops of the chives sticking out above the snow, washed them, cut them up and put them in my salad tonight. I figure they can’t be spoiled if they’ve essentially been frozen for 36 hours. They were quite flavorful.
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I put in one raised garden bed over the weekend 
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I think most of seedlings and plants made it through the cold spell so far. There are still some nights with frost predicted this week so keeping fingers crossed.
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Thanks again to @druidessie and @CalBal for the pea trellis advice! Ours is officially in business, and we planted our first half-row last night. Transplanted the strongest 2 starts and 5 seeds. Going to try staggering the seeds for a continuous harvest.
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I suspect I know why none of my direct-seeds have come up. For some reason with this compost, I can soak and soak and soak the bed, and if I dig down in it just a little teeny bit I find it’s dry just under the surface. Everything is rolling off. WHAT DO? Incorporate garden soil? Something isn’t working…
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Some research suggests it may have just dried out over our dry winters and become a bit hydrophobic. The proposed solution is to water the shit out of it.
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Trying an experiment wherein I actually mulch the bed I put lettuce & arugula in. Wasn’t going to because the mulch is pretty heavy, but some of my volunteer spinach is growing through the mulch, and when I started scooping some up to consider it I noticed the soil underneath was really moist and rich. This is kind of what was described when I was reading about food forest gardening/back to eden method. So we’ll give it a shot. I’m hoping it helps hold the moisture I put on it. If it works, I may need to get a lot more mulch…
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This is what happens in my climate over summer. You should be able to buy wetting agents (the one I know is called wetta soil) to sprinkle or spray over the bed and the water will soak in.
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Compost by itself can definitely dry out pretty fast via wicking action.
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