Spot The Difference

If you've been paying attention, you may remember last year's potato crop was pants. Very few of the tubers materialised and many of those that did, succumbed to 'Blackleg.'

Well I'm pleased to say the visual impression of the haulms is very different this year;

Spot The Difference!

Despite earthing up, some of the early growth did get hit by some late frosts and there's still the threat of blight later in the year, so I'm not getting too excited about the potential harvest. But, so far so good.

I also took an opportunity to harvest my garlic this week. Despite a wet spring, waterlogging and standing water at times, most had done quite well.

Garlic 

Details of what I planted can be found in an earlier post here. What surprised me, was that the new variety did better than the 'Aussie' garlic that I'd done the year before. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that garlic adapts to your soil, so by saving the best cloves for planting the following year, you should get plants that thrive on your patch. On this basis, I though the Aussie garlic would fare best, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Final judgment will, of course, be made on taste and on how well they store. For now, I've hung them inside my warm shed to dry.

Signs Of Life

Exactly one week since sowing my first seeds of 2013, there are signs of life. Tumbling Tiger Tomatoes and Razzamatazz Chilli seedlings have begun to emerge.

Tumbling Tiger

There's still no show from the other chilli variety, but I'm sure they'll be doing their thing in the next day or so.

As the weather has been much kinder over the last week, or so, I spent another couple of hours down the allotment, just tidying things up in preparation. Next Tuesday I'll be sowing some seeds outdoors; parsnips, carrots and some raddish.

The sharp eyed may have noticed they are all root veg. I had them pencilled in for sowing in early March and it just so happens the current moon phase is ideal for root crops. The moon is currently 'waning' - basically getting smaller, until the new moon on the 12th.

I don't pretend to know an awful lot about moon planting, but for those that are interested, THIS PAGE is quite informative.

One final job was to carefully hoe around the garlic. Bearing in mind some of the garlic bed was under standing water earlier this year, the bulbs appear to have survived pretty well.

'Aussie' Garlic

I appear to have lost just one bulb of 'Aussie' garlic and one of the  'Germidour', which isn't bad going in the circumstances.

Hopefully the weather will continue to be kind to allow next week's seed sowing. I also have some strawberries to go in and I'll post again once they're in.

Aussie Garlic

With most beds dug over ready for winter, one of my last jobs of the year is to plant the garlic.

Although it was tempting to use the fattest, juiciest cloves for cooking, I saved the best of this year's harvest to plant again for next year. I read somewhere that garlic readily adapts to your soil, so it's good practise to save the best to plant again for the following year, to develop a big, strong, healthy crop.

A while back, a friend of mine was returning to Australia and kindly left me with several bulbs. Some perished in my wet heavy ground, but two bulbs did remarkably well. It's from these that this year's harvest came, but being very bad at labelling, I have no idea what variety they are, so I've come to refer to them as my 'Aussie garlic'.

In addition to these, I've also purchased a couple of new bulbs this year, to see how they compare, a French variety called 'Germidour'. Apparently well suited to British conditions with a mild, rich flavour.

To try and minimise the risk of rotting, I've dug bigger holes than normal for planting, and added a mix of seed compost / sharp sand / grit. The cloves were positioned on this mix, in the hope that any water will drain past the bulb instead of puddling. I left the points about an inch from the surface, backfilled with compost and gently raked over.

Should be ready for lifting next June :)