Winter onions/garlic

I went out to the allotment yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, all alone, meaning to potter for an hour or so. That was at 1.30pm and I left at 6.30 pm! Other allotmenteers arrived and went until I was the only one left.

I dug out the remainder of the main crop potatoes..Kerr's pinks, they were blight free but very small. When we cut down the foliage to prevent the blight from going down to the tubers, they obviously were not developed enough.I think that would only be beneficial if they are fully grown, and can be left in the ground until needed.Next year we are only going to put in first and second earlies, as main crop take up too much space for too long, which we do not have.

Scarecrow may have thought he was taking it easy for the winter months but now he has garlic at the far end and onions to the foreground to keep the birds off of for the coming months. I was just going to dig up the pops, then I carried on and dug up the whole bed. After the tea break I thought I may as well plant everything out and be done with it. The nice straight lines are the marks of the plank I used to form the rows and not compact the soil too much by walking on it. I did not check if it was a root crop day or if it was the correct moon phase for planting as it is the only day I could spend a lot of time out there this week! I did not check if it was the correct sequence for follow on planting either, onions,leeks and carrots ( it causes forking in carrots) should only be planted in ground which does not have fresh manure as they do not like animal manure and are ideally suited to using garden compost. This bed was manured last year for the potatoes and has had nothing added since.

We will just have to wait and see.

To the right of the photo is the purple sprouting broccoli in its netting. they are coming on OK after a slow start, these were the ones we started in, and planted out in the newspaper pots, (see post for 9th July, Dave's advice ) If anyone can tell me how to link one post with another, please do leave a comment!

Comments

A Colorful World said…
You are so smart about when to plant things (moon phases, which order!) I VERY much want to plant using such information when I have a go at it again! Your plot looks gorgeous! So clean and well-ordered. It was a lot of hard work, I know, this past Sunday, but you did a marvelous job!
September 29, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Peggy said…
Thanks, Tile lady, I am afraid I have to read up on all that.It is not knowledge I retain! I hope by sharing some of it,it will help other people who may be reading this.
Thanks
Peggy
October 2, 2008 at 5:54 PM
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