… it must mean another three days at the allotment and we got tons done again. We had another big job list and managed to get quite a few of them done. Creating a list of jobs to do on the plot is easy, actually getting time to do them when your fitting in weeding, watering and harvesting is another matter.
First up was some time dedicated to planting up our crops for a late autumn harvest and clearing some of the massive soil pile. Whilst Pilla was preparing the beds on 97 for the sweet williams and wallflowers I got to work clearing the massive pile of mud we had been left on 118. The previous occupants had dug up the path one day (it was quite a comical raised grass path that was about 6″ higher than the soil either side) and piled it on one side of the plot. This had then got absolutely covered in horrible weeds and is full of glass and rubble. Which means that not only do we have to dig through it, we have to clear the weeds, glass and assorted hand tools contained within it. I think I’ve got past the half way point and must have cleared around 20 wheelbarrows of mud, putting in around the plot werever the soil looked a bit low (or was of rubbish quality). We thought about using the extra space cleared to plant things but as we had just had some fresh manure delivered from the stables next door we opted to start a manure pile instead. This will eventually rot down a bit and we’ll cover the plot in the winter with it. I can’t see it adding that many nutrients but it should make the soil a better condition and it’s probably been years since anyone put any down on this plot.
Pilla planted some late sowing turnips and some late peas on the new plot. The peas are going at the front where the new potatoes have just come up from. Having not had a crop in for years this side of the plot is on it’s second already this year! We did tons more harvesting too, comedy sized courgettes and cucumbers included. We picked some more new potatoes (probably just plain ‘potatoes’ now) and lots of beans. Having hardly had any beans last year they are one of our big successes this year. The climbing beans in particular have done really well and we are considering scrapping the dwarf variety next year. We haven’t even started on the runner beans of which there are approximately one million. I had a quick weed and managed to put down the last two flags I have on the path, which i’m very proud of as iIt has made a huge difference to how neat the plot looks.
Another exciting job was to plait the garlic we harvested last week. I found this ace link on how to properly tie it together, for begginners like us it was definitely a two person job, but the result is pretty impressive. Our garlic is huge this year, i think every head is as big as the biggest one from last year. We’ve got 27 in total form this solent wight variety, including 6 we have singled out for the show. We’ve also got a batch of smaller garlic, which we harvested this weekend, and it is currently drying in the greenhouse. We used a lot of our own grown things in the Tatton park picnic on Friday night, including lots of fruit in this raspberry jelly. MMMMmm!
Ah, I see now why you were awarded this second plot. It sounds like it was a right mess, and you two had already proven yourself by making huge improvements on the first one! I had to laugh about the hand tools and other junk buried in the mud pile–that pattern has been observed in the States too. Lovely walkway, Neil!
Did you have enough of the Padron to fry? If so, how’d it taste? Mine got rather buried by a tomato, so it’s just onesies for me. Very nice looking garlic too! Hardnecks do better in our winters, so no plaiting for us, but they do get larger every year. Love the photos and watching things progress!
Thanks Shelley! We’ve pulled out a couple of forks and hoes along with bucket fills of glass, crazy really. We don’t quite have enough padrons to fry just yet, but it’ll probably be only a week or two (fingers crossed!).
Do you always over-winter the garlic? we only put ours in the ground in march and they have come out great.
Ah, it sounds like the kind of plot the old timers would spread rumors of buried treasure about, just to get the place cleaned up. 😉
We plant the main garlic crop middle to late September, about the time recommended for planting tulip bulbs here. The goal is to get it well rooted but not sprouting above ground before winter sets in. Those are always the largest heads for us, dug about mid-July or so. We hang them in the basement to cure for eating and keep the heads with the largest cloves for planting again.
Of course, I can’t resist plugging in the half-dead cloves that didn’t get eaten before they sprouted around the edges of beds, wherever there’s a tiny gap in May, for green garlic or just to see how they’ll do. They always seem to do just fine. Sometimes they’ll scape and form little bulbs that summer; other times they make just one large clove like an onion. Either way, they’re edible and don’t go to waste, or they can be used as seed garlic instead or passed on to another unsuspecting gardener.
I wish you guys were a bit closer. What a bunch of seed swapping and plant swapping we could do, eh?