Garlic harvest time is late June or early July. You do have to plan around it. There's no rushing it -- I tried, one year, by cutting back on water early, and the bulbs didn't form properly.

You can harvest it now, or anytime between now and maturity, as green garlic. Cook it like you would green onions. You won't get mature bulbs that way, but it's still usable and very delicious.

I planted a entire raised bed with garlic. I don't think it will be too late to transplant other vegetables that I have growing in containers till I harvest it. I was even planning on putting in some early tomatoes (matina) that I have growing in containers right now. Or maybe I will plant some corn seeds this friday (2 days before the new moon), in between the garlic.

I use the garlic space for winter squash and pumpkins. In my zone the timing works out pretty well for me to have pumpkins for halloween.

Tracy

In my zone 4 garden I usually harvest garlic in mid July and follow it up with a cover crop of hairy vetch. The following season the vetch grows back nicely just in time to mow it down and plant tomatoes right into the fresh mulch.

In my experience you're better off planting garlic in late fall. Mulch and water it well after planting and it can handle plenty of frost. No need to use up that precious space in September.