Nick Kitchener

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.

Being a multi-year / decade long situation, you only need to store / prepare for as long as is necessary until your permanent solutions come online.

You've all been expecting this right?

That is weird. Normally you have sprouts with roots emerging from the joint where the sprout comes from. You carefully separate the sprout, nodule, and roots in one piece (called a slip) from the tuber and grow that out in water.

I've never seen roots emerge at one end and shoots at the other. Then again, the usual method involves cutting up the tuber into pieces first (chitting).

Be aware they do sucker. And the suckers will bust up through black top / tar seal.

Chances are the backwash function is draining the line at some point. If there is a power interruption, like a power overload on the circuit by running other appliances, then if the pump is not self priming, it will fail to function.

Yes

Interesting thing with blueberries is that they tolerate acid soils more than other plants. They are quite happy in normal soil too.
Dan Kittredge talks about this. The plant will create its own optimal soil conditions provided that the soil life is healthy and abundant.