Getting ready for Spring

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning down at The Patch.

Mr.Fox has been investigating the garlic I planted last week and has pulled some of the bulbs up.  I planted another half-dozen bulbs between the rows to replace any that fail to germinate.  I also planted two rows of shallots Eschalot Grise from my stock of small bulbs harvested earlier in the year.

Heather planted a row of narcissi Saint Keverne for cutting in the Spring.

Hello foxy !

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and we spent most of it down at the patch. Heather cleared away all of the remaining tomato plants, tidied-up the brassica beds and picked a nice trug full of vegetables.

I prepared the beds for garlic and onions and planted 4 rows each of Garlic Solent Wight, Onion Radar and Onion Electric. I also sowed a row of Peas Meteor with a cloche then placed over to protect from marauding pests.

As we were clearing up to go home, a young fox came strolling through the allotment as bold as brass !

Companion Planting

I am currently planning our plantings for 2011 and considering whether to plant courgettes on a bed covered with black plastic sheeting.

I was also thinking about putting some companion plants alongside, and have found this rather helpful chart produced by the Countesthorpe Gardens & Allotments Society... see here.

Update October 18th.  A more extensive list can be seen here.

Patty Pan

We were given some rather large patty pan squashes by Philip and Simon.

Heather cut off the top, removed some of the flesh, mixed it with couscous, tomatoes, cashews, spices and baked it in the oven.

Delicious !

One potato, two potato

We have harvested the spuds !

After a dry early-Summer, I was not expecting too much from our potatoes... especially after lifting such poor earlies. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this lot.

The variety is Golden Wonder (yes, the ones used to make the crisps !) and although the tubers are a bit misshapen, there doesn't seem to be any rot and very little scab.

Guildford in Bloom 2010

Awarded Silver-Gilt for second successive year.

Onions

We have just received our onion sets from Tuckers (100 x Radar and 100 x Electric) for planting in October.

The variety Radar produces nice, brown-skinned onions for harvesting from May next year and the variety Electric produces attractive red-fleshed bulbs.