What's going on with this garlic?

[Daveswife]

My understanding of garlic growing is that the best time to plant is October or November and plant about 2" or 3" deep but no deeper because you want them to benefit from really hard frosts. They love a long spell of freezing cold weather during which time they go completely dormant. Then when spring comes they burst into wakefullness and make a proper head of garlic which will be ready to pick the following July/August. Well, that's the theory.

If I were to make a guess what has happened to yours I would say they were planted too deep. But as long as you have something garlicy to use then whatever shape they come out it is useful.

[Christine]

Cheers - that's helpful advice.
By the way - is the stem thickness related to the size of the bulb? They do seem to correlate (in which case, I have one or two really big bulbs still in the ground and the rest are pathetically small...)