Vegmonkey and the Mrs.

Rather than take loads of photos again I’m just going to post a ‘how to link’ to last years stringing efforts below:

http://vegmonkey.co.uk/how-to-string-onions/

It took us about an hour to do, with the Mrs doing the tying and myself on the stripping (of undried stem!) and cutting of roots. Most of the bulbs had dried out really nicely but a few were not quite there as they were underneath. Out of the 4 ties, 3 have gone in the shed where it is quite cool, the rest are hung on our old wooden kitchen door, adding to the rustic feel…or something! They will be eaten second.

The first ones to go into the pot will be the ones on which the stems split and fell apart – they got a sudden decapitation and went in the ‘Onion Bag.’

These are the Japanese ones planted last year and which overwintered…it will almost be time to put the next lot in! The maincrop onions will come out soon – I’ll probably give them until at least mid-Auguat though. Happy tying!

Two posts in one week! There’s something wrong!

I’ve decided to let the onions at the allotment that have started to go to seed to continue going over and to produce some nice Alium heads. The Mrs. likes to have flowers about the place, so I suppose I should do my bit…it’s not like we are short of onions!

The potato bed I cleared recently looks quite bare above, but it has just been filled with about 40 or so Leek seedlings. I didn’t reaklly have a dibber, so used the end of my hoe to make the deep holes, almost hoeing my face multiple times in the process! Not much to see just yet though. The watering can decided to fall apart (I’m definitely sure it was a conscious decision!) while i was filling the seedling holes with water so they got done, but I’m not sure how well.

The carrots above have been so intermittent. I’ve come to the conclusion that as the soil has been ‘grown in’ for two years without any organic matter being added whatsoever, it has decided to get its own back. Fair enough. Looks like there may be some digging in order in the very near future.

Maybe I’m jumping the gun a little, but the sweetcorn is going great guns this year. I have had real difficulty growing it in the past, with either slugs eating the seedling or them drying out from lack of water, or just a small withered selection of plants. This year I decided to go for it a little more…and ended up cheating, well, sort of.

The plants in the top picture are all in our garden and are grown from seed. They are doing well, even if the Rhubarb thinks it’s a teenager putting on a growth spurt and crowding out their sun. The plants in the picture directly above were bought from our local neighbourhood garden centre and cost me no more than £4. They are well developed, free of disease and hassle free. Yes, I know that they aren’t strictly ‘ours,’ but sweetcorn are so difficult to grow in my experience, and this method is so cost effective, especially as buying that in seeds would cost more than £4!

With hindsight I suppose it would have made more sense staggering the sowings as we will have a glut, but on the brightside, a sweetcorn BBQ where we provide the veg sounds like a good idea!

Having not been able to get down the allotment as often as we want to, I was worried that the beans would shrivel in the heat we have been having lately and die. Surprisingly, a quick water once a week has been enough for them and they are starting to climb the poles erected. They are a mixture of french beans and runner beans – I have left space at each end so I can tie them up of they get too bushy!

I’ll tie them to the poles a little better on the weekend so they can climb high!

Above, the lettuce look quite nice in their little bed by the house, quite handy, although the litle gems are ‘hearting’ now so they probably need to be picked soon before they start going over. The peas behind are going very wild although they are also cropping well. I think they need to be tied up at the weekend. There really is nothing better than a fresh pea off the vine!

Also in the picture are some radishes I forgot to pick, which are bolting and the tomatoes on the left which I wil post more detail on soon.

As the weather was relatively nice over the weekend, we took the opportunity to harvest the Japanese Senshyu Onions that have been growing since about October time. As usual, I bought too many, but the ones that did make it into the ground, have grown huge. I think they are much bigger than any onions planted in March have ever been. Must be something to do with the weather…

As the Mrs. showed how much of an expert she is at stringing onions last year, (http://vegmonkey.co.uk/how-to-string-onions/). I think she’s ‘really looking forward’ to getting stuck into it. We couldn’t find a decent explanation of how to do it online, so decided to write our own. I think it did the job as it got a lot of comments, but I don’t think it became the definitive weblink I wanted it to be!

Amyway, the onions, red and white, have been laid out on wire inside the old cold frame that we built from an old Argos wardrobe when we first moved into the new house. They should be happy drying in there until the stems start to die off and go brown – usually about 7 days, then we can string them. The difficulty with doing them straightaway is that the stems are too thick and if they are left too long, the stems tend to tear when they are tied, which isn’t ideal for stringing.

I’m quite pleased we’ve found a use for the cold frame, it has been pretty redundant of late, after the ’slug hotel’ inspectorate awarded it 5 ***** for comfort and warmth, I have been reluctant to put anything in it. It doesn’t get a huge amount of light either.

Potato update: It seems they were just ready. The picture above shows the bed I cleared. The bag they are in weighs about 25kg…that is under a quarter of what we will recieve in harvest. Innovative potato recipes anyone? I left two rows in as a bit of an experiment to see if the scab gets any worse after the plants fully die off, I predict it will.