Tag Archives: shallots

Fast and bulbous. Got me?

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A couple of weeks after we featured them in a post here we can see that those shallots are coming on well. As we said last time, we haven’t had much success with them in the past in the raised beds but it looks like starting them under cover and sticking some organic matter in may have done the trick. We’ll keep you posted.

In the top right of this pic above you can just about make out the giant garlic. We stuck the sides of the raised bed (without the polythene on top) back on them as a bit of added protection as the wind seemed to give them a bit of knock last week. We’ll start feeding the garlic and the shallots soon with some comfrey/nettle liquid as soon as we can get some started and on the go. Hopefully that combined with some good weather to come may help them on their way.

Punk rock? That’s shallot

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As it was a glorious day yesterday we spent much of it tinkering about in the garden (above). Notice the hessian shopping bags (mid-centre left) hanging on the found-in-the-street tree-like coat stand. Those bags will be filled with Lidl’s best peat-free compost and contain potato plants in a few weeks time. Dada gardening at its best.

The shallots we put in a couple of weeks ago “under glass” (which is just an old window frame found in the street balanced on some house bricks) are off to a flying start. We’ve tried growing shallots before but they rotted even before they got this far so we must be doing something right this time.

We tided up the side bed by the Dad corner (below) and replanted a couple of penstemons we bought off QVC a year and a bit ago and also made some sort of bug hotel (there isn’t a roof on it so is that more of a bug campsite then?) Those giant garlic bulbs are now coming on a treat as well.

Also we cleared a little area by the pond (below) and added a mini veg bed. We stuck some large wire mesh (originally some shelves from our old mini-plastic green houses) over the top of it to deter the cats, putting in a line of old house bricks in helps visually section the area off too. It gets a bit of shade so we’re thinking the lettuce seeds we put should be okay as in full sun they tend to go to seed. Let’s see.

Hopefully we’ve another couple of days worth of gardening to do over Easter if this lovely weather holds out. Have a good Bank Holiday weekend!

Listening to last week’s On The Wire which has a deep dubby bias while we write this post. Well worth listening to as per. Big shout to Steve, Fenny and Jim.

… you’ll sing again, shal-lots in Forest Hill*

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We’ve had some shallots sitting about in a bag for weeks and noticed they were looking like they had to be put out soon or they’ll go mouldy, so yesterday (on the eve of the official start of spring) we undertook a little job in the garden.

Years ago we found an old window frame on a skip and over the years it’s had many uses but since lockdown it’s been lying up against the back fence in retirement. The weather’s so changeable at the moment we knew those shallots had to be put in under cover, so the window frame had a bath in warm soapy water and is now back in service.

We got some bricks to make a simple support to put the frame on and then dug out a good bit of soil out of the space within, then made a small compost trench with a little bit of kitchen waste pinched from the top of the compost heap (whilst we were there, we gave the heap a bit of a fork over and a mix). Also using a trowel, we fished out about two buckets worth of decent compost (Black Gold as they call it) from the bottom of the heap which we put on top of the compost trench and then covered that with the soil we initially took out and there you go, we’ve now got some shallots “under glass”!

All of the shallots went in, had a light water and then we gave the bed around it a little hoe over (top pic) and then gave the path next to it a good old sweep. This gives a nice contrast between the bed and path making the bed look like it had a good few hours work on it. A trick learnt from the council. Now we have to wait and see. Springtime weather, do your job!

* To the tune of “Tulips from Amsterdam”.

Quaking in our gardening boots about the weather

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We watched the weather forecast on telly last night and the tall chap in the suit was a little unsure about what’s going to happen next week, “It will get colder and there may be snow or maybe not, even we don’t know”. We deduced from this it’ll be a good idea not to be too keen this weekend especially sowing something outside, so we’re holding our horses as they say.

Because of the cold weather today we decided to give it a miss even though we had some jobs to do out in the garden. We did have post this morning that cheered us up though, a small bag of Rocket early seed potatoes (If you want to know the different types of potatoes from earlies to lates explained simply, have a look here), some shallot sets that we’ll put in mid-March after this cold spell hopefully and some packs of seeds: spring onions (the variety Guardsman that have dark blue/green leaves), purple sprouting broccoli and some miner’s lettuce which we’ve never come across  before. More on the miners lettuce here.

Also a good mate of ours sent us a packet of Quaking/Quivering Grass seeds (top right hand corner of the above pic). They weren’t sure if that was the actually name of the plant or just the name the person who gave them the seeds called them. We checked on google, it did exist but it was only one of its names, it’s also called: didder, doddering dillies, jiggle-joggles and quakers-and-shakers. More on Quaking Grass or Briza media here. Do keep warm this weekend!

One last tidy

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Yesterday while watching the weather forecast (the one the farmers swear by) on Countryfile we were told that this present mild spell in SE23 will be replaced with some “normal for this time of year” weather very soon.

This afternoon we spent an hour or two in the garden tidying up, not that you’d think we did looking at the wild patch at the bottom (above) but as we’re trying to cultivate a “wild” look we really don’t know what to do for the best. Do we weed or leave?

Last year we sowed some Bee Bombs alongside more wild flowers using our random sowing technique (aka chuck them anywhere) and considering the area doesn’t get that much light we did alright but we’re going to give it another year and see what happens. It does look messy at the moment and the two random stalks of brussels sprouts don’t help either.

We also forked up some dahlia tubers (top pic) we didn’t get around to lift after the frost, got as much mud off them as we could and now they’re indoors in the dark and dry until the spring. We maybe too late as we took out some rotten parts already but we’ll keep a check on them. More info on lifting and storing dahlias here.

The raised beds at the side (above) are quite tidy and nice to see the overwintering onions and shallots doing well. The usual bucket over the rhubarb is back, to try and force some early stalks out of it come the spring.

We moved a bay bush we got years ago which was not doing well in its old location and it looks like the move has worked wonders. And below is the pond that is looking quite bare at the moment but give it a couple of months and it’ll be back to its former glory. We’re still leaving the pea netting on top as that Ladywell Heron has been seen of late standing motionless at the bottom of the garden the other week.

That’s our update, if the weather’s okay we may do a bit more but we doubt it with what was said on Countryfile!

And in the background while we write this, is the latest Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room from IDA Radio (Tallinn). Starts with some chilled Jazz from Finland and then progresses through some nice musical genres.

Played early on the show is this wonderful tune from Brenda Ray called Space Dustin’.

To overwinter or not to overwinter?

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We had some strange old weather today, all was looking bright until about 3pm when it pelted it down and then at about 4pm the sun came out again and we got the Garlic and Shallots in the raised bed. We’ve tried to make it pest proof after all of the shenanigans this weekend too. The metal protection was the shelving from one of those mini greenhouses we had years ago.

The beds have had the added benefit of the soil improver a few weeks ago and we’ll add some compost to the top of them as well sometime this week. Fingers crossed the Shallots do well next year. We didn’t have a bad year with the Garlic but we’ve love to know the secret to getting more out of them. Anyone out there know any good tips for getting decent Garlic in raised beds? Any ideas appreciated!

And news just in is that This is a music show 135 is up on the cloud. Cheers Dazman for posting this up! This week’s show includes Ernest Freeman, a tribute to Richard H Kirk, a steel band cover of The Beatles and some great Reggae as always. So if you love decent music and also love the medium of shortwave radio listen to the below.

And talking of radio shows, tune to The Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio (Tallinn) tomorrow morning at 8am UK time for 3 hours of the best tunes across lots of genres. Link to the live link here tommorow morning and you want to choose the Tallinn station. Here’s last week’s show by the way. Radio is still the way forward!

Caning it!

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We’ve started early with putting out the sweet peas in the side bed with some wigwam cane arrangements. They were grown from seed and hardened off for a few days outside before going out this afternoon. Well, we’ll give them a try and if they don’t succeed we’ll try (and try) again.

The plants in the raised beds with protection are starting to get going. There’s onions, shallots, chillies, spuds and tomatoes. Can we stick anything else in them? The old window frame we found in a skip donkey’s years ago has some cabbage seeds which have’t germinated yet. And in the foreground remains of the front garden wall that was stripped of its ivy (that was actually holding it up!)