News from the plot
Onions and garlic
We’ve recently planted more onions and garlic. This is in addition to the large amount we planted back in November of last year. We planted a couple of varieties of garlic, including a pink French type we haven’t tried before. According to the description it is one of the strongest and spiciest types. We considered buying some elephant garlic but we’ve attempted to grow it a few times before and never had the results we expected, so decided to give it a miss this year. We chose to plant some Stuttgart Giant white onions as they received good reviews for being both reliable and growing to a consistent size.
Water collection
It’s been good to see our water butts filling up steadily in preparation for the coming year. Last year the butts on our plot contained enough water so we were self-sufficient and there was no need to collect water from other sources. We installed another large water butt in December so we should have plenty of water for our plants this year, even if we have a long period without rain in the summer.
First shoots
Last week we saw the first shoots of our tulips poking through the soil. Granted, they were just a few millimetres tall, and there weren’t many of them, but they were definitely there. We haven’t checked since then but wonder if the recent cold weather will have stalled their progress. We’re really looking forward to seeing how these turn out – partly because we bought half a dozen different varieties and mixed them all up before we planted them. It’ll definitely be a colourful display.
Cold weather
We’ve had some very cold weather recently, just as we thought that winter might be coming to an end. It has made us extra-cautious about planting some lilies we bought from the garden centre – they should only be planted after all risk of frost has disappeared. It might be worth waiting another couple of weeks to be on the safe side. We grew lilies last year and were both surprised how easy they were to grow and how stunning they looked. They are fairly delicate, compared to some other flowers, but they really did look beautiful on the plot while they lasted.
