I have grown garlic for years and consider it the easiest vegetable crop to grow. I have always been taught that, given our northern zone 5 climate, we could only grow hardneck garlic. Turns out that this is a myth.
Both the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Filaree Farms (keepers of the largest privately held collection of garlic in North America) agree that both hardneck and softneck can be grown in colder climates.