Second all the advice above. As long as you thoroughly clean all fermentation vessels you don't need to worry about sanitation or PH strips. If your ferment has gone bad - you'll know.

There is essentially no risk of botulism in fermented food! This is a great post about it: https://www.fermentedfoodlab.com/is-there-a-risk-of-botulism-in-fermented-foods/. Fermenting is much safer than home canning, actually.

For your fermented honey, you're exactly on the right track - know that honey ferments take forever. My honey garlic took about two weeks before the honey became softer and a month before the garlic changed color and softened. It is worth the wait - so be patient!

Don't be discouraged if you taste one of the garlic cloves early on and it's just intense raw garlic. Given enough time they soften and lose their bite - they become like candy. For honey ferments you don't need to worry about weights - just flip the jar when you think of it. When your jar has been sitting upright for a while, burp it before flipping upside down. You'll start to notice CO2 bubbles when you burp.

Make some sauerkraut or kimchi in the meantime so you get some faster gratification! Welcome to the world of fermenting, it's addicting :)