My dilemma was that my beds are not filled yet, I plan on filling them sheet-compost-style over the fall and winter but my garlic needed to go in immediately. So... in a divine inspiration (thanks to the people at GardenWeb who got my wheels turning) I decided what to do.
I took cardboard boxes and arranged them on the east end of the garden bed.
I put a shovelful of aged horse manure with sawdust in the bottom of each box.
Then we filled them all with bagged garden soil. Eleora is SUCH a good helper :)
Then I arranged each box with the garlic on top, approximately 4 inches apart
Dug in the garlic and covered them up
Topped with a thiiiick blanket of shredded leaves
And voila! Garlic beds. Since it's so late in the season and the garden beds are, of course, raised, I thought it might be a good idea to put the manure on the bottom. My hope is that while it decomposes (since it is now moist) it will generate enough heat to keep the garlic from getting too cold until it's established. I didn't put very much in each box since I was worried about it burning the garlic. Since the potting soil was probably close to 10 inches deep I'm sure the garlic won't get burned... so we'll see how that experiment goes.
The other experiment was planting in the cardboard boxes themselves. I figure, the sides will keep the soil walled in for now until I'm able to fill the rest of the bed and then they will decompose over time once surrounded by the soil on all sides. I tried to put leaves stuffed in the sides to insulate a bit more but also to hasten decomposition by providing organic material on the other side of the cardboard. I'm also going to pile up more leaves on the west side inside the bed to provide more insulation until I can get the bed filled.
Time will tell :)
