I have given up second guessing the weather; we are two days off December and today on the Hampshire coast it is mild and sunny and feels like a spring day – crazy!
This morning was definitely an allotment morning and lately I’ve taken to walking there rather than risking the car getting bogged down on the very muddy allotment car parking area. The only problem with that is I can only take a few tools, (large items such as spades and forks are in the shed) and I have a selection of Wolf multi-change tools which I would rather keep in my car – my shed on wheels! Walking limits what I can take with me. Also I have to remember not to get too exhausted as I have to walk home, I am inclined to get carried away and keep finding jobs to do rather than set myself a task or two and then leave it for another day.
My Six on Saturday today is fresh from the allotment.
- Broad Beans
These are Aquadulce Claudia and have beaten the ‘being-eaten’ stage and are looking very healthy so should survive the cold weather when it arrives. The netting around them acts as a windbreak, it can get very windy blowing across from the harbor.
2. Curly Kale
Not so successful. These were the plants I mentioned a few posts back. I bought a tray of 6 from our local independent nursery and thought although it probably wasn’t the best time of year to plant them, I would give it a go. They have been chomped to pieces, despite copious amounts of garlic spray and wool pellets. Not one to admit defeat, I will leave them in situ and they may just pick up in the spring and at £1.80 if I lose them it won’t break the bank.
3. Onions and Garlic
I am happy with my onion and garlic bed and the netting appears to have kept them safe. The garlic is a soft neck variety call Germidour and the onions are Red onions but the variety escapes me at the moment. The patch of bed beyond them is waiting for the leeks – see below.
4. Leeks
The rest of the onion bed will go to leeks in the spring. I sowed these a few weeks ago and they are doing well in the cold frame. There is a collection of toilet rolls in the shed and shortly I will transplant them into larger trays in the rolls, leaving them in the cold frame until they are ready to go out early next year. I grew them this way in 2018 and they were successful.
5. Scabious
There are still flowers on the allotment garden and the Scabious is full of buds. Considering it is a summer flowering plant, it is clearly not ready to pack up and go home yet.
6. Nigella ‘Love in the Mist’
Another anomaly is Nigella which seems to be springing up all over the place. Does anyone else have this still growing in their gardens?
That’s my lot for this week, short and sweet. Please take a peek over the garden fence at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/28/six-on-saturday-28-11-2020/ and check out what is going on in his garden and the very many contributors to his Six on Saturday meme.
