Hello wise ones!

I planted garlic last autumn for the first time-- long-neck elephant stuff that was supposedly primo for my region (COLD!). It came up perfectly, but seemed to have dried out too soon. I got nervous and pulled up a bulb when the stalk was 80% dry to find a perfectly grown bulb with only 3 (fully sized) cloves. I let the rest of it go as long as I could-- about half of it dried up and died, so I salvaged the rest, and again, only about 3-4 cloves per bulb.

I mulched it over well before the frost last winter, kept it watered, but not too much. It had plenty of sun. Ring a bell to anybody?? I'd love to have some idea before I put this year's down.