Wednesday 22 February 2012

It's Nearly All About Onions

There isn't much left in the veg garden now - a few cabbages maybe, purple sprouting broc looking the worse for wear and a few leeks - but I guess that's the way it should be at this time of year.  Of course space is now needed for getting ready for the new gardening season and preparations are in hand.


Shallots, onion greens, garlic and leeks
 I decided to plant the shallots in last years potato sacks, all I have to do now if carefully transplant them into the ground now that they have rooted, this will give them a good start, and the birds will find it more difficult to pull them out.  The onion greens have been cut several times and have grown well, these will remain in this container for further use throughout the year.  The garlic withstood the bad weather well without protection and the shoots are about a foot high now.  If you remember in a previous post here I decided to experiment with my leeks by not digging them up, instead I decided to slice them off at ground level to see if they would re-grow.  As you can see from the picture, bottom right, the experiment has worked and new leeks have formed.  I have cut them off twice now and still they come back.  I will have to wait and see if they go to seed this year - but nevertheless I have so far had three lots of leeks from the one crop - so that can't be bad.

salad leaves
In the greenhouse there are just a few overwintered salad leaves left now, but they are beginning to look weak and spindly and some are going to seed.  I have just sown the first batch of new seeds for this year to keep the momentum going.
Potted up strawberry plants
In the greenhouse the strawberry plantlets that I potted up are showing signs of new growth, slowly, but it has been pretty cold in there - I prefer growing  strawberries in pots as it keeps the slugs off and you get earlier crops, outside I grow them as ground cover under the raspberries.


purple sprouting broccoli
 I only have half a dozen psb plants - two at home and the rest at the allotment.  The ones at the allotment are really looking in a sorry state after the snow etc. but this one pictured at home seems to have fared better, although there is no sign of any flowering shoots yet.

The next job for the month is to get the ground prepared for the onions, potatoes and peas - which, if the weatherman is right about the weather warming up towards the end of the week - I may be able to get done, with a bit of luck and a following wind.
Not long now before it could all be looking like this (click)

25 comments:

  1. Looking good!! MUST get my onions etc in the ground soon. Bit later up here as it is still colder than further south.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This will be my first year growing shallots... I have them still as sets in a bag at the moment and plan on planting them out in about a month, though I know the best time for starting them would have been awhile ago. Have you planted them late before too?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our onion and shallots are planted in pots in the greenhouse for planting out late.

    Clever experiment with the leeks too

    ReplyDelete
  4. I plant our onions/shallots into pots for planting out later.
    I'm still amazed by your success with cutting back leeks etc and letting them regrow. The only ones that we have left have bolted so I wouldn't expect them to regrow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your leek experiment is interesting, I must try it when our leeks are ready. They were late planted so are'nt ready yet.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your leek experiment is interesting, I must try it when our leeks are ready. They were late planted so are'nt ready yet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Glad to hear that the leek experiment worked, you never know how these things will work out until you try.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice idea with the shallots & glad to hear the leek experiment worked. I'm growing leeks for the first time this year so I will keep your idea in mind for later.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Its all about onions for me too. I have bag of mixed colours to plant this week and already have some overwintering ones.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Interesting experiment with the leeks. I have only ever tried growing leeks once, and I judged them to have low VSR, so I didn't try again. Maybe I will have to try again, treating them as a "semi-perennial" !

    ReplyDelete
  11. I plan on growing shallots this year as well. And I like your idea of using strawberry plants as ground cover under the raspberries. You are a true inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Everything looks great! I'm glad your garlic survived the bad weather and that your leeks experiment was successful. I'm hoping for warm weather this weekend too so I can get a few seeds started.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi, what a nice looking garden you have. We have had so much rain that I need to get back out into the garden soon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm trying leeks for the first time this year, so I shall follow closely anymore advice & top-Tips! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Elaine,

    I’m impressed how tall your garlic is already. I need to check how my veggies have survived the recent cold.

    Just hoping now we have a warm March...

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love this time of year, prepping for the Spring & Summer ahead. You can't go too far wrong than a good crop of Onions & Leeks. Good luck with the rest of your preparations.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Really good tip about the leeks. Though I'm not keen on them so tend not to grow them. Which is a shame because they're probably one of the few things I could grow that won't get munched to pieces. Most of my psb went to flower early so I have three plants at the allotment. I still have had quite a few harvests from just those.

    ReplyDelete
  18. that all looks great, ive been planting lots with my pre schoolers at work, they are loving it and i hope im instilling a good love for gardening in them at this young age!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi Elaine, thanks for pointing me in the direction of your blog! Your pictures are just lovely and you've shown that vegetables can be as beautiful as flowers x

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?
    I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very good results.
    If you know of any please share. Thank you!

    Here is my weblog xn--fcebook-8va.it

    ReplyDelete
  25. Excellent blog here! Also your website loads up very fast!
    What web host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
    I wish my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol

    Here is my web-site: shop online

    ReplyDelete

If you have enjoyed reading this post why not leave a comment - I would love to hear from you.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...