A video update in August

Garlic Braids 2009

After giving the garlic a few weeks to dry out I have braided it for storage. This year we are also planning to keep the bigger bulbs to replant next year.

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.

First Spuds Lifted

This year we planted 3 seed potatoes in a potato barrel in the greenhouse on the 4th April. This was an attempt to get an earlier crop. Today we harvested to see if our experiment had worked. The potato barrel contained 1kg of new potatoes. Not a huge crop. Last year we had double the weight from the same barrel. Many variables different here though - different variety (arran pilot versus red duke of york), probably much less water (obviously there is no rain in the greenhouse!)and I used 3 seed potatoes rather than 5. Worth it for the earlier crop though in my opinion. These were harvested 3 weeks earlier than last years efforts. We have another potato barrel that should be ready in a few weeks. The first of the allotment grown spuds should be ready starting mid-june and from then they should be coming thick and thin.

May Bank Holiday Update

A mixture of warm sunshine and heavy rain has created the ideal conditions for fast and healthy growth at Lottie Plot Four. Over the last few days we have started to plant out bedding plants and annual veg plants that we have been growing from seed in the greenhouse. Yesterday we planted out 40 sweetcorn plants in a block. Sweetcorn must be planted in this pattern to allow for pollentation by wind. The potatoes are doing well and the first earlies are just starting to flower. Hopefully this is a sign that it will not be long before we are eating tasty new potatoes.