Sowing time is Feb-March or October. If you live in a wet area plant Autumn garlic in a raised bed or wait and sow in Spring.
Each garlic bulb consists of up to twenty individual cloves and it is these cloves which are to be individually planted. Carefully remove the outer skin from the bulb (not from the cloves) and separate into individual cloves. Select the largest eight or so of the cloves which will be on the outside of the bulb.
Plant garlic in at a spacing of 20 - 25cm between plants and 25cm between rows. Plant one clove per spacing with the pointy end facing upwards and about 2 cm below the surface of the soil. (For Autumn sown garlic it's a good idea to mulch the bed with leaves or straw to protect form severe frost.)
Dig the soil well to about a spade's depth before planting, adding as much organic matter as possible to assist with drainage - garlic will rot in water-logged conditions. Some sand mixed in will help with this too. Garlic thrives on a well fed soil, so in late March and again in mid May, feed the soil with general purpose fertiliser.
Garlic is normally ready for harvesting when most of the foliage has turned yellowy-brown - this will be around mid August time.
We grew ours in full sun and it did just fine. Make sure it gets enough water, but don't get it waterlogged, or it will rot.
I cooked something with garlic this afternoon and the clove I used had a good size sprout going. I ate it I think I should grow some garlic too. I like it and eat a fair bit of it.