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never grown garlic before its marco a soft neck variety it says plant in autumn when is best to plant it

thanks 

With softnecks you have a bit more leeway.  You can either plant them in October (the idea is that they are just rooted before first frost, but don't make a lot of top growth).  Or you can plant them in early spring.  But October is best for all garlics. 

For Hardneck garlics it is necessary to plant them in October because they need all the winter cold to stimulate them into making separated bulbs. 

However for Marco and any other garlic this applies:  Just in case you plant in October and a sharp frost (or animals) should destroy the top shoots, don't be overly concerned, they will usually grow back fine in spring.  But it is worth checking that the little bulbs stay put, sometimes birds or worm action or something unknown dislodges some of the cloves and they need replanting.

Good luck.  Growing garlic is really relatively easy   

thanks alot i shall get them in soon then i will protect them with some chicken wire to stop the birds pulling them out

Get them in soon, and they'll have time to make a good root system over winter, and get off to a flying start in the spring.

In Oz I get my best results from an autumn equinox planting and I have been doing it for 25 years.
They get a chance to grow well before any frosts and ours get down to -5C usually and sometimes to about -8C.
They do go reasonably dormant in the cold but take off again as soon as spring warmth comes. Mine are currently bulbing and will be ready to harvest mid to late November (or the last few days of spring).
It was back about 40 years ago an old (at least 80) shearer's cook told me to plant all my onion family plants on the autumn equinox.

http://path.earthgarden.com.au/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=7&thread_id=1579&pid=102064#post_102064

hi jim c what ever that is in the link its asking for a username and password

Quote from: astraman1 on September 16, 2014, 20:58:44
hi jim c what ever that is in the link its asking for a username and password

Is this an Australian gardening group?

I planted a few cloves last weekend, sacrificed from this year's "harvest"
They always seem to do surprisingly well, something of a miracle for me.