Allium Sativum also known as garlic is an easy thing to plant. First you must prepare the beds, garlic do best with soil that has good drainage. Using compost mixed with sharp sand and organic matter you create a high fertile and decent drainage soil.
Grass, bulbs, sharp sand and compost
After moving 2 x 125ltr bags of compost on my own and mixed it with organic matter as well as the sharp sand
Just needs mixing
After the bed was prepared it was time to add in the garlic. Last season I started with 3 bulbs, broke them into 20 cloves and got about 15 bulbs, which was split into 60 cloves.
Bag of bulbs
What you do is break apart the bulb into individual cloves, you plant the clove with the tip facing up at 2.5cm deep (1in)
Future garlic bulb
Plant the cloves 15cm apart (6in) and leave 30cm (12in) between rows. I used a bamboo cane with tap indicating length
Simple yet effective device
Lastly for good measure drape a net over the bed to stop birds and squirrels from yanking out the young plants.
Looking good
Mulching is a good option as garlic doesn’t compete well with weeds
The season is winding down it’s getting dark even earlier and the cold winds are on their way… But that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything!
Last season I started with 3 bulbs which when divided up into cloves and planted it produced about 20 bulbs, which in turn made 60 cloves.
Now is the best time to plant garlic, the weather is warm enough for the roots to grow and wet enough so they don’t dry out. With the the bed I added sand, compost and organic matter this will provide good drainage and plenty of nutrients for big bulbs.
60 cloves which will become 60 bulbs
These are 15 mixed gladioli they were in our garden but they are toxic to cats and our cat likes to munch poison plants, so they had to be relocated
Looking worse for wear
All these went into the wild flower part of the allotment that’s dedicated to pollinators, gladioli have plenty of flowers which produce a lot of pollen
A mass of plants 😀
It’s getting really close to the first frost and I’m not opportunistic I’m going to get any decent chillies, below is the only one I’ve got so far and unfortunately some creatures has munched it, but at least I have the seeds!
I’m sure it was tasty New home
Two of them have been uprooted and will be kept inside till June so hopefully we can get a decent harvest next year
This I’m really excited about, I bought a battery powered brush cutter which is so much more lighter than a petrol one and better for the environment too! I’ve strimmed down some grass which will increase my allotment by 4x8m
Last visit at the plot coincided with the council cutting the nearby grass. Grass cuttings are a fantastic mulch which is high in nitrogen.
Looking green
The weeds are suppressed by plain brown cardboard with grass cutting on top, later on I’ll add compost and be able to add the plants directly into the soil with no digging
This plant shot up from no where, it’s a teasel which is good for the pollinators and birds but the issue is, it’s invasive and takes up precious room
Prickly thing
Moving on over to the cabbages and caught this little guy having a munch, but it’s okay there’s plenty of cabbages to go around
Quiet a pretty snail
I harvested some sprouts and had to get a photo
Brassicas galore
Planted some hollyhocks as well in the wild flower bed, which the bees go mad for
Starts off small, becomes huge!
I managed to get another sneaky insect photo at work. This is a hover fly drinking the sweet nectar from honey suckle
Last Autumn the blueberries went in to the ground which was great at first, but they were prone to being strangled by bindweed and fighting off grass.
It only made sense to build some raised beds, that way it’s easier to keep on top of the weeds and I’m able to add iron sulphate (soil acidifier) easier, which the blueberries love
Before
Above is the blueberry without the beds and below is the freshly built beds
Now
I added ericaceous compost (acidic soil) and topped with bark. The bark holds in moisture and stops weeds from growing, it also biodragades and adds nutrients to the soil
With climate change being under way it’s lead to some seasons changing, for example this september we are going to be experiencing weather in the mid 20s which you would expect for April or May. As bad as this is at least the upside is a longer flowering season
A bumble bee gorging on a poppy
This was only a quick visit where I pulled up some weeds and gave the chillies a feed. For some reason this little guy wanted to hang out in my watering can
I rehomed him on a nettle
These are the chillies that I planted way back in April, the fruit is turning yellow then eventually red and hopefully they ripen before it gets too cold
Tiny chilli
Moving on over to the herb bed and the chives have gone absolutely wild, they started off as two plants which I divided up into 4 and if I wanted to I could turn it into 8
Poor sage has to battle for space
Here’s a photo of a shield bug on a leaf, hopefully you can spot him with the excellent camouflage
Minding it’s bug business
Lastly here’s a photo of how the plot is looking. It’s been a fantastic first season and I can’t wait for next spring
The cabbages are finally at a decent enough size for me to harvest one so here it is!
It’s huge!
This isn’t the only brassica that was harvested, here is a brussel sprout stem with all of it’s sprouts. I don’t actually like them, I grew them because I had room and seeds.
I wish I liked the taste of these
The potato plants have started to die back so that’s a sign they can be harvested and so I dug where a plant was.
Irish gold
Moving on over to the other plot and we have some pretty big strawberries
Almost as big as my hand
The nasturtium that was planted in the edible flower bed has gone a bit wild to say the least
It can not be contained
The chillies are still budding and I’m really hoping I get at least a few this season
At this time of year there are little jobs to be done, mainly just hoeing weeds, watering when needs be and most importantly enjoying what you’ve planted
It’s taking over!
Nasturtiums are incredible plants, the leaves and flower are edible with a peppery taste. They die off in winter but will self seed.
Feeling proud
Behind that handsome fellow is plenty of mallow which attracted tons of honey bees
Absolute unit
Poppies are fantastic self seeders and if my IDing skills are right this is Papaver Somniferum or commonly known as the opium poppy
Bees are the best
Lastly I had to share this photo of hoverfly that looks like a honey bee
