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Growing basics: garlic.  Garlic is really easy to grow and home grown garlic tastes infinitely better than the supermarket variety. 

Type garlic to grow. If you live in a area with a long cold winter & wet cool spring (eg, zones four, five, six and perhaps seven), stick with hardneck type garlics (rocambole, purple stripe or porcelain types). If you live in an area with warm winters, little or no spring, then stick with soft neck garlics-(artichoke types which are the kind you usually find in the supermarket) and silverskin. Otherwise the general technique is the same.

Preparation of area. You are probably better off using raised beds (nothing fancy-just prepare a three foot wide bed, rake some extra soil on the bed and voila, instant raised bed). Add some well composted manure if you have some, otherwise spread a few handfuls of 5-10-5 fertilizer for every foot of bed. In the north, plant after the first frost but before the ground freezes-here in Massachusetts that is some time around the end of October. You want the garlic to start making roots, but you do not want it to really start growing and send up a shoot. In the south with softneck garlic, you can plant as late at the end of December, but you are probably better of planting around the beginning of November or perhaps a bit earlier.

Planting. If you have full heads of garlic, carefully separate the cloves. Plant one every six inches in your bed (make about a two inch deep hole-e.g., index finger) and drop in the clove. Water and cover with a good mulch. My favorite is a mixture of ground up leaves and grass clippings. Put at least three inches of mulch on top. The mulch is critical and will do several things. In the fall it will keep the ground moist and warm (in the north); in the south it will help keep things moist and cool). The garlic will make roots, but will not send up a shoot. The mulch will also keep down weeds in the spring. If you do it right, you might have to pull one or two weeds from an entire bed of garlic. Once you have your mulch spread, leave everything over the winter.

SPring. In the spring, you will get shoots poking throught the mulch in early spring, usually about the time you would plant peas. Fertilize again. Let your garlic grow. If the spring is dry, provide supplemental irrigation. With hardneck garlic in the North, the main shoot is going to curl and have a single seed at the tip. These are called scapes. I always cut them off when they form, since I am convinced that you get larger cloves if you do this. In addition, the scapes are delicious braised in a bit of olive oil. In the North, your garlic will be ready sometime in late June or early July. It is ready when the lower leaves start to turn brown. Dig it up, store in a dry well vented place for several weeks to let it cure. Store permanantly in a cool dry place and do not let it freeze. Save some of the bulbs for planting next fall. Softneck garlic will be ready much earlier, perhaps as early as April. Dig and cure it the same way. 

Onions.  Italian onions are long day onions.  That means that they do best at higher latitudes (above 35 degrees or so).  While you can direct seed in the early spring, you will get the largest bulbs if you grow your own onion seedlings.  However, some varieties have done very well from direct seeding in our trial gardens.  This year barletta (a small white 'pearl' onion did very well from direct seed as did Lunga di Firenze.  Follow these simple techniques for perfect Italian onions.

For Transplants:  Start your seedlings 10-12 weeks before the time you plan to set them out.  You can set them out in the early spring about two or three weeks before the last frost date.

To start your seedlings, put a growing mix (either store bought or home made from 1/2 finely sifted peat, 1/2 finely sifted compost and 1/2 handful of lime per bushel of mix) about 4 inches deep in a flat.  Wet mixture thoroughly.  Put your onion seed on top trying to space the seeds about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart.  Cover with 1/4 inch soil mix or preferably vermiculite.  Water again & set seeds in a warm place.  As soon as they germinate, get them under grow lights.  You can begin to feed them a week or so after they have germinated. 

You want them to have plenty of space, so pull and discard any seedlings that are more than about 1/2 inch from the next one.  Allow to keep growing.  If they begin to get too tall, you can give them a 'haircut' with a scissors.  Just snip off the top inch or two of the seedlings.  They will do fine.

About a week to ten days before you plan to set them out, begin to harden them off by putting them outside in a sheltered place for a few hours.  Increase the time every day.  

To plant out, have a well dug bed with good fertility.  Onions benefit from a soil with a high phosphorus content.  Plant them about three inches apart in rows set about 10 inches apart.  Keep well watered throughout the growing season.  Onions benefit from a good fertile soil, so give your crop several side dressings.

GROWING YOUR OWN ONION SETS. This is really easy and makes life easier next spring.  Sow your seed for onion sets about three-four months before your expected hard frost.  Here in zone 5b, Southern New England, that is sometime toward the end of July.  Prepare a nice bed.  Add some good compost or 10-10-10 if you do not have any.  Rake well.  Scatter your onion seeds and try and get them about 1/4 inch apart.  Firm them down by hand and cover with 1/4 inch soil.  Keep well watered until they germinate and provide supplemental irrigation.  Just let them grow.  The tops will die back about the time the first frost is due.  After the first good frost, pull your onions, which should be about the size of a marble.  Store them in a cool dry place for a few weeks until they dry well.  Don't wash off any dirt.  Once well dried, pack them in mesh bags (save your old store bought onion bags).  Don't put too many in a bag;  try about one pound per bad so that there is good air circulation.  Store over the winter in a cool dry place.

GROWING ONION FROM SEEDS.   In the north, direct seed in a well prepared bed about four weeks before the last frost date.  Try and get your onion seeds at least an inch apart.  You can either leave them on the surface or cover them with 1/4 inch or so of soil (better).  Onions should germinate in two weeks or so, perhaps earlier depending on the weather.  Keep them well watered.  

Once they have germinated and grown to three or four inches, you can begin to start thinning them out.  Leave at least an inch between onions.  Pull any weeds.  Weeds will be the biggest problem you have growing from seed.  

Barletta onions will be ready in early July, just in time to have them with the last of the spring peas.  Other onions will be ready in August and September.

LEEKS.  Grow your seedlings just like onions.  Only difference is planting out.  Make a trench about four inches deep with your hoe.  Plant the leeks inside the trench.  As the leeks grow, push soil into the trench up against the leek.  When you run out of trench, begin to mound up soil against the leeks.  You want at least six inches of the plant buried under the soil.  This is what is going to give you that nice white root.  Begin harvesting after the first frost.  Most leeks are incredibly cold hardy.  In zones 7 on up, you can just leave them.  Further north, cover them with some mulch (leaves, straw, etc) before the first hard freeze and you can harvest them all winter.