Time to plant the Garlic out again

The nights are getting longer and the temperature is plummeting so a lot of folk would not consider it a good time to be planting in the garden. But now is the time to get your garlic in if you want a good crop next year as the bulbs need a certain amount of frost to encourage the bulb formation under ground.

I am going to grow two variety's this year the first is Elephant Garlic although it is technically a leek but it will always be know as garlic. The other variety is Red Duke from Marshalls Seeds I grew this one last year and it produced a really good crop with good flavour as well. It is a hard neck variety which is ideal for planting now if you have any soft neck variety's you are best waiting till February before you plant them out.

Plant them out 15cm apart about 3cm under the soil this will stop the birds pulling them up and the bulbs tuning green in the sun.

Don't forget you can also plant out your over wintering onion sets in over the next couple of weeks so you get an early crop next year.

Malvern Autumn Show 2015

It was the Malvern Autumn Show last weekend so I had to go and have a look to me it is one of the highlights of the Horticultural calendar. Especially for the amateur vegetable grower this has one of the best shows in the country and always attracts growers from all over the country.



It was another great show as always there was rows and rows or perfect vegetables and flowers as far as the eye could see. In the Harvest Pavilion this is where amateur growers from all over the country come together under one roof to battle it out to see who wins the sort after red cards.





 One of the bests exhibits for me was the British Trug Championship it is amazing how many vegetables you can squeeze in to a trug and defiantly deserved the title of reserve best in show.

The National Vegetable Society's championships was also taking place in the Harvest Pavilion and the collections of vegetables where superb and showed some almost perfect vegetables.

Over in the good life pavilion not only was there lots of great talks and demonstrations through out the day. It was also where the 20th giant vegetable championships where taking place and there was certainly some big vegetables on display. Three new world records where broken the heaviest leek weighing in at a staggering 10.6kg that's a lot of leek soup grown by Paul Rochester from Sunderland. A 12.9kg cucumber the Queen would only need one of these to feed her guests cucumber sandwiches at her garden party and still have cucumber left over.



But the world record I do not understand is the longest beetroot in the world 7.21m long the reason I do not understand it is that only the first 2 foot is actually beetroot and the rest is just fine root hair. But putting that aside it is very impressive to grow a root to such a length and get it out the ground with out breaking it. 

There was also a few flowers too but it is the vegetables that I am really interested in but there was lots of fantastic flowers on display.

 As well as lots of great fruit it would not be Malvern without the fruit and hops on show.

Can not wait till next years Malvern Autumn Show 24th - 25th September 2016.

Giving My Wheel Barrow A Boost

The leaves are coming down thick and fast now and getting rid of them has become a daily task. One of the problems that most people encounter every year is a couple of scoops full of leaves and your barrow is full. Meaning endless trips to the compost bin so it was was time to give my rusty old barrow a boost. With the wheel barrow booster from Grean Base you may remember seeing it a few years back on Dragons Den.

The wheelbarrow booster is so easy to fit to the our barrow it has an elasticated base to stretch over the lip of the barrow. 

Just pull up the sides and you have boosted your barrow increasing its capacity by 300% the booster is so light that it dose not add any extra weight to the barrow. It is ideal for light weight stuff such as leaves, pruning's and would be excellent in a stable for carting about all that hay and straw. 

The wheel barrow booster can be taken off folded up and put away when you don't need to use it so will last for years. I would recommend every one with a barrow should have one in the garage to help out when you need that extra bit of barrow space. 

 

Available from most good garden centers or direct from Grean Base RRP £12.99

Time for a bit of late season sowing - Self Sufficiency

Although the leaves are starting to fall it dose not mean that the growing season is over just yet. There are still lots that can be sown in the garden at this time of the year to give a good autumn and spring harvest.

Now we will need to give some of the crops some protection from the weather either in the form of a cloche or fleece. A polytunnel would be the ideal situation but i don't have the luxury of one of them so a cloche it will have to be.

September is a great time to so seeds as the soil is still warm from all the summer sun (yes we did get some this year) and in a normal year we would have some rain to help them along not this year though. My intital plan was to sow a whole raised bed dedicated to all the winter crops this idea has been put on hold as i have not built the bed yet so plan B it is. Fill up any gaps i have left i the raised beds i did build and the rest in the open borders and some in pots that can be brought in the greenhouse when the worst of the weather hits. This way their (fingers crossed) should be something to pick in even the worst weather conditions. From the pots in the greenhouse a window ledge will be just as good if you have not got a greenhouse. What are we going to sow well it's mainly leafy salad crops that we can pick at through the winter months. It is also a good time to sow one last crop of green manure i am planting Phacelia from T&M which should over winter keeping any weeds suppressed. Phacelia is very good for adding humus to the soil and is good on poor dry soils which is ideal fro the bed where i intend to grow it. This will be dug in during the spring leaving enough time for it to rot down before needing to replant the bed.The green manure is just scattered over the bed, raked in and given a water.

Making drill for some Raddish

All the other seeds we will just make a drill with the how and thinly sow with the exception of the Lettuce as i prefer to so in module trays and then plant out. This is so i have some to plant in pots and the rest takes it's chance under the cloches.

Seeds sowed today where.

Lettuce 'winter density' from Suttons
Spinach 'Bordeux f1' from T&M
Spinach 'Perpetual' from Mr Fothergills
Land cress 'American' from Suttons
Mizuna from Mr Fothergills
Raddish 'bacchus f1 from T&M
Raddish 'French breakfast 3' from Aldi
Rocket 'Cultivated' from Moles
Lambs Lettuce 'Valeriana' from Franch
Pea 'Douce de Provence' from Suttons 

This will not be the last of the sowing for this year we still have Broad beans and another sowing of Peas. These will be sown in November to over winter so we have a (fingers crossed) good harvest in the spring. We will also be starting on the micro veg soon although they can be grown all year round. I do prefer to save them for the winter months when there is not a lot else to pick at and you also get to keep sowing seeds which is the best bit.

THE LEAVES KEEP FALLING

It's autumn the hedge rows and trees that have spent the summer all green and lush are slowly turning colour. With various shade's of yellow, red, bronzes and all the colours in between slowly one by one they begin to fall carpeting the ground beneath creating a tapestry of colours not seen at any other time of the year. As nice as it looks they all need to be picked up they are suffocating what lies beneath them whether that be the lawn or your border plants. You only need to leave them a week or so on the lawn and the grass soon turns yellow the same happens to your border plants. Whether you use a rake, blower or your hand's you need to get them up but these leaves are like gold to gardeners if composted properly they make the best leaf mold. If you have the space make a leaf mold bin fill it to the top remember to keep it moist. Turn it a couple of times during the year and after 12 months you will have one of the best potting ingredients that you can not buy from any shop. If you haven't got a compost bin spare or the space for one don't worry. Put the leaves into a bin bag fill up if the leaves are dry add some water just tie the top put a couple of holes in the bag and leave in a shady corner. Make sure to turn the bags a couple of time's through the year this is the same as turning the your heap gets air into the middle. Its lots of hard work collecting all these leaves but you will certainly reap the rewards the following year with lots of lovely leaf mold.