June 2009 update

Following the first garlic harvest, we have now removed all the japanese onions, shallots and a further 2 beds of garlic. This year the Solent Wight garlic has been a bit of a let down as the bulbs are rather small. The japanese onions have produced an impressive crop with some real whoppers amoungst the harvest. With the first bed of onions we made a large batch of onion and balsamic vinegar chutney. The second bed are drying in the greenhouse.



In addition, the greenhouse and garden are coming along nicely.

Chillies



Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Sweet Peppers



More Chillies!



Various flower borders









Koi Pond

First garlic lifted

Today we lifted the first bed of garlic. These are a variety called 'purple wight'. They crop early, but are not noted to have the best storing capacity. Saying this, ours stored fine up to March last year! The total is about 80 bulbs. There is the odd small one, but the majority are a reasonable size so we are pleased. The plants did develop a little rust, but this was just over the last week and it doesn't seem to have affected the crop.



Here you can see that we leave the soil on the plants.



We give the plants a good shake, but don't wash them. They will be left to dry in the greenhouse. After a couple of weeks the bulbs are not so easily damaged and the mud comes off by removing the most outer layer around the bulbs. We can then braid them for storage.

The first early potatoes (arran pilot) were also dug out today. After reading about replanting early spud plants, if they still have pea sized tubers on, we have decided to give this a go. The theory is that you can get a second crop. Once we had removed the edible-sized potatoes we re-planted the plant and watered in well. Time will tell if we have success with this method.