Haha I live in zone 3 and garlic is just beginning to emerge.
I always grow it under a thick layer of mulch and have found that after a few years the generations get better and punching through it. I don't water it because it's protected by so much mulch, and I don't add anything to the soil apart from the mulch.
I'll use straw, hay, or leaves. Whatever I can find.
Last year we had some volunteer potatoes show up in a garlic bed and the garlic were really happy about that so this year we will be interplanting potatoes with some garlic to see if it also helps keep the deer off the potatoes.