Onions, Potatoes, Wildflowers and other things

Onions, Potatoes, Wildflowers and other things

Onions

The Autumn Onion sets have grown reasonably well in a bed that had 18 inches of manure dug into the clay, although digging them up demonstrated that there wasn't enough manure. The manure has broken down into very little and the clay soil is still sticking together and has become rather dry. Breaking up the soil ready for another crop will still be hard work and a load more manure will be needed. There was a lot of hay in this manure. The onions were both red and white and a lot have wide necks, some have tried to go to seed although I snapped off the flower head to help the bulbs grow. They are different sizes, different shapes with some being almost flat bottomed and some round. I think these onions came from the local Garden Centre and they went in in the first week of November 2014.

They have been left to dry out

Garlic, Red and White Onions June 2015

Garlic

The Garlic came from the pure manure bed next to the Globe Artichokes and also grew quite well but had been shaded and now covered by the broad beans which have been semi blown over by the wind. I'm quite pleased with the garlic although like the Onions are various different sizes. This manure bed has composted down extremely well and stayed moist. It has been in semi shade. 

The pure manure bed

This bed, where the old chicken run and caravan were, was an experiment. I planted the whole bed hoping the Broad Beans, Garlic, Shallots and Onions would be OK. The Broad Beans have done very well and have liked the manure, The Garlic didn't seem fussed either but the 300 or so Onions in this bed, planted in the spring, have so far failed. They are extremely small, yellowing leaves with brown tips. I've looked for pests (as suggested on the net as the cause) but the bulbs look perfect but little bigger than they were when planted. I planted some Onions in the Autumn here as well, next to the Garlic and although also small, probably caused by the fact they were very shaded next to the Artichokes, which grew bigger and spread more than I expected, were OK.

The Onions planted in the Autumn went into fresher manure than the ones that have failed in the spring in the same bed so I think that they failed because April was a dry month and the top inch or so where the onion sets were planted became very dry (although deeper than 1 inch was very moist) before I realised and started to water them. I have left these Onions in to see if they will put on growth still in the next 2 months.

I have all but given up on these onions and have planted some sweet corn between the rows of onions as well as Courgette so as to get a crop from this bed. It's a shame about these Onions because although I still have a normal quantity of Onions compared to most years I was hoping to have 5 times this amount as we use so many Onions and hopefully we would sell some.

Potatoes

I'm declaring my Potato bed as being a great success. I dug most of the bed last year, piled on manure, then dug it again to a depth of 2 forks, then piled on 2 feet deep of manure and left for months and then dug it all over again. It is almost 50 / 50 clay soil and well rotted manure. A very nice texture in the main. For planting the potatoes I dug trenches 18 inches deep rather and earth up the potatoes. As the Potatoes grew I filled in the tranches. This bed stayed moist for the entire time. 

See Potatoes are in post in April

There are 1st and 2nd earlies as well as main crop and I had read that the 1st earlies (Pentland Javelin) can be ready as early as 10 weeks after planting. I also read that they needed 15 weeks.

Click on any photo to enlarge

This picture was taken after 8 to 9 weeks.

We dug one potato plant after 10 weeks and got about 450g of perfect potatoes. Very tasty. They will now be left for another 5 weeks to grow more tubers.

24th June 2015 - 450g of Pentland Javelin

Wildflowers

The old bonfire site was sown with random wildflower seeds. I didn't know what they were, only that they were saved seed from last summer. Most were Poppy and Corn Cockle and they put on quite a show!

22nd June 2015

10th June 2015

These will provide seed to be sown this Autumn around the field.

Teasel

I have grown from seed, and then planted out, several Teasel plants around the field. One that was planted within the long grass, which then became part of the potato bed has grown to almost 6ft and is rather impressive. Plenty of seed for the birds and hopefully I can save some.

Teasel 18th June 2015

An over all picture showing the Teasel can be seen in the potato bed photo above.

Other Teasels around the field aren't quite this size and so I presume they really appreciate the manure and moist condition on the soil. Out of all the Teasels the one I left in a large pot has done least well.

Seed Failure as well as Greenhouse Failure

Seed Failure as well as Greenhouse Failure

Back in October I sowed Skirret, Cauliflower, Spring Onions and a few other things as a test. The Skirret seeds were old and I wasn't too sure if they were viable but regardless of what I was hoping to achieve mice had other ideas. They dug up and destroyed all the seed trays.

The Teasel may survive but little else will.

On top of the mice the wind we had at the same time as the tide surge peaked at 42mph in the sheltered area where the greenhouse is and it blew out two panes allowing the wind and cold in. Not a good situation!

Greenhouse is repaired but any more seed experiments will now have to wait until the Spring obviously.

On a brighter note the Broadbeans I sowed outside from this years saved seed are doing very well but the Broadbean seed taken from the packet (same variety) have almost totally failed. One or 2 germinated but were attacked by birds but all others failed. This must say something. One set was my fresh seed the other set was same seed but bought and used for the previous sowing that produced my fresh seed.

Stuttgart Onions, both beds are doing OK apart from the fact that the rabbits have attacked them although not too badly.

The veg patch and the whole field are looking very drab and untidy so the next few weeks will need to be used to clean up, if for no other reason than the aesthetics.   

More Wild Flowers Planted and Sown

Fritillary

After reading about how rare in the wild Fritillaries are I decided to buy another dozen bulbs and planted them in front of my compost heap. These ones were mixed purple and white, as opposed to just white that I planted the other day. In the wild there are only about 30 sites where these can be found in any quantity and if they are that rare then I thought I needed some more. 

I've never seen these before, apart from in pictures, but they seem an essential ingredient to our part of the field we want to turn into a wild flower meadow. In the wild it likes to grow in meadows that flood and stay damp and my field certainly floods, or has done in the past, and because it is mainly a heavy clay soil should stay at least moist in the dry months 4 plus inches deep.

Pheasant's Eye

While browsing 3 different garden centres I noticed that Unwins have a wild flower seed group and I managed to spot a packet of Pheasant's Eye seed. I've started to learn and identify wild flowers this year but my memory isn't as good as it ought to be but seeing the name rung some bells and on getting home I'm pleased to find that Pheasant's Eye ( Adonis annua) is another endangered flower and is on the Bio-Diversity Action Plan. I mean pleased that I spotted the seeds rather than pleased this flower is endangered :) I sprinkled these about and to be honest I can't remember exactly where, not even which side of the field I sprinkled them, so I'm looking forward to some of these popping up in the summer. It says on the packet that they can be sown outdoors in October but they may need a little protection. I'm just going to let nature take it's course.

Teasel

I have Gold Finches in the garden, sometimes a small flock, and I find them one of the prettiest birds there are and have been meaning to get some Teasel seeds for a while. I keep meaning to just pull a head off of a wild one next time I go for a walk but it never happens so again I was very pleased to see these seeds for sale. I scattered some of the seed along the hedge, sunny side, and a few elsewhere, plus I decided to sow some in the greenhouse just in case. To many people these are pure weeds but I don't mind the look of them and they can be quite pretty and should give the field some more height, which it is lacking. The big benefit of course is that the Gold Finches love them.

Anemone Bordeaux

I also picked up some Anemone bulbs, I don't know why, and I think I may have spotted a bulb next to this one and picked up the packet by mistake. Anyway, I now have some of these which are described as "ground cover" and I planted them but once again I can't remember where. Probably in the pile of earth which I keep putting upturned turfs on when I want to get rid of some. They look a bit like Poppies, although they are bulbs. Any flower is a nice flower but I doubt that these are native.

Field Scabious

There was a packet of Field Scabious seed which I picked up, read the back and saw the price. £4.99 for a few seeds of a wild flower! No chance. I'll have to find another source of this flower.

If half of these flowers come up the meadow area will look stunning next year, even more than this year.

It's only October and I'm already inpatient for spring to arrive! I guess that happens the more you get into your garden and vegetables :)