Today we planted the onion sets and shallots. The onions are the same as we planted last year, Red Baron and Stuttgarter Giant. They both did really well last year and stored well. They stored so well that we still have some of both left. We wanted to get Golden Gourmet shallots as they did well last year and like the onions stored well over winter, but we couldn't find any good quality bulbs so we bought a couple of varieties that we've never tried before. The ones above are Pikant and some French ones called Jermor.
As you can see our broad beans have survived the recent snow and cold weather and are looking healthy. There's a little bit of nibbling, but nothing to worry about.
We also have leeks and garlic growing well. We could do with some sunshine now to start warming the ground up and then we can get on with the other crops.
I got two old water butts off of Freegle recently, they just need a good wash out and a couple of new taps. Yesterday, I made a stand for them and connected them up and now we have three times the amount of rainwater storage.
The broad beans are coming up nicely, even if they are being nibbled. Once they get a little bit bigger they will be fine. Onions and shallots are doing OK too.
Picked a nice amount of rhubarb which Lin turned into a couple of crumbles this morning.
Beautiful warm day today and we made the most of it, planting the onions, shallots and broad beans. Now for the next couple of weeks it's going to be a battle between us and the birds, can they pull the onions out quicker than we can replant them? Birds see the dry onion tops and think it would make good nesting material so pull it out of the ground, only to find that there's an onion attached to it and drop it back on the ground. Once the sets have taken root they are safer.
We finally got around to buying our onion sets. We went for Stuttgarter Giant as they promise a good yield and hopefully a good size too. Red Baron, a strong flavoured red onion and for shallots we chose Golden Gourmet as they produce good sized bulbs and should store well over winter.
First real visit of the year to the allotment today, dropped off some compost and a load of leaf mulch from one of Lin's customers. Most of it we left in bags to rot down a bit more, but some of it was in bags that had to be returned so some went in the compost bin and we covered two beds with the rest. It really helps to suppress the weeds in spring and will soon rot down in to the soil.
We also picked up some of last year's shallots that have been hung up to dry in the shed.
