Moved Shallot 'Jermor', Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' and Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' plants into Coldframe

Today I moved the Shallot 'Jermor', Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' and Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' plants from the Home Greenhouse to the Coldframe on the Allotment.

Shallot 'Jermor' plants in the Greenhouse at home

Garlic plants in the Greenhouse at home

Shallot plants and Garlic plants in the Coldframe

Coldframe on Allotment 1

Today I also checked on the Onion sets that are in the Allotment Greenhouse and these appear to be coming up quite well.

Onion sets in the Allotment Greenhouse

I also made up the storage box for the Allotment and this has been put into the Polytunnel for the time being due to the weather today.

Storage box before being made up

Storage box in the Polytunnel made up

Planted Garlic 'Solent Wight' cloves

Today I planted the following in the Greenhouse:

- 14 x Garlic 'Solent' cloves into 9cm square pots filled with a mix of Westland Jack's Magic Compost and Vermiculite. These have been placed in the unheated Greenhouse.

The Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' and Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' cloves appear to be growing along nicely as well as the Shallot 'Jermor' sets. The Leek 'Musselburgh' seedlings appear to be coming up very slowly which may be due to the cold weather we have had of late. The Sweet pepper 'California Wonder' seeds appear to have now germinated with 2 sweet pepper seedlings in the heated propagator at present. At present none of the Celery 'Marine', Shallot 'Zebrune' or Shallot 'Simiane F1 Hybrid' seeds have germinated. More of the Onion 'Alisa Craig', 'Bedfordshire Champion' and 'Exhibition' seeds have germinated and these onion seedlings will need pricking out to give more room in the propagator.

Garlic 'Solent Wight' cloves

Shallot 'Jermor' sets in the foreground and Leek 'Musselburgh'
seedlings in the background.

Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' and Garlic 'Early Purple
Wight' cloves

Sweet Pepper seedlings on the right hand side
with Shallot trays in the background and Onion
seedlings in the foreground

Onion 'Ailsa Craig', 'Bedfordshire', 'Exhibition'
trays.

Pricked out Onion 'Exhibition' and Onion 'The Kelsae' seedlings

Today I filled up 37 x 2 inch pots in order to start to start potting up some of my Onion seedlings. I pricked out the following:

- 20 x Onion 'Exhibition' seedlings into 2 inch pots filled with John Innes No.1 seed compost
- 17 x Onion 'The Kelsae' seedlings into 2 inch pots filled with John Innes No.1 seed compost

Due to work this afternoon and this evening I ran out of time to do the rest of the onion seedlings so will do these tomorrow.

I put the half seed trays of both Onion 'Exhibition' and Onion 'The Kelsae' back into the other heated propagator as further seedlings appear to be showing. The Shallot 'Jermor' sets now appear to be starting to sprout. The Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' and Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' cloves are also sprouting quite nicely over the other side of the Greenhouse.

I know need to make some hoops up to keep the onion's in an upright position.

Foremost John Innes No.1 compost

Onion Seedlings

Onion 'Exhibition' seedlings in the foreground
and Onion 'The Kelsae' seedlings in the background

Shallot 'Jermor' sets

Garlic cloves having started to sprout

2 trays on the right having been put back into
the heated propagator

Onion 'Bedfordshire Champion', Onion 'Exhibition' and Onion 'The Kelsae' seed germinated, Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' and Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' cloves beginning to sprout

Today I popped into the Greenhouse to see the progress of my seeds germinating as I have been away for a few days:

Onion 'Bedfordshire Champion', Onion 'Exhibition', Onion 'The Kelsae'
and Onion 'Ailsa Craig' in half seed trays and Sweet Pepper
'California Wonder' in the 3 inch round pot

 As can be seen in the heated propagator above, the Onion 'Bedfordshire Champion', Onion 'Exhibition' and Onion 'The Kelsae' seeds appear to have started germinating. Onion 'Ailsa Craig' appears to be further behind but these will probably show in the next few days. The Sweet Pepper 'California Wonder' seeds have not currently germinated.

The Leek 'Musselburgh' seeds appear to have not germinated either as of yet. The Shallot 'Jermor' sets appear to have not started to sprout up but this will probably start in the next week or so.

As can be seen in the photo above the Garlic 'Early Purple White' and Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' cloves that I planted on the Shortest Day (22nd December 2015) appear to have started to sprout.

Planted Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' and Garlic 'Lautrec Wight'

Today I planted the following:

- 16 x Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' cloves into 9cm square pots filled with Westland Jack's Magic Multipurpose compost mixed with vermiculite and these have been placed in the unheated greenhouse.

- 9 x Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' cloves into 9cm square pots filled with Westland Jack's Magic Multipurpose compost mixed with vermiculite and these have been placed in the unheated greenhouse.

Garlic 'Early Purple Wight'

Garlic 'Lautrec Wight'

Garlic 'Early Purple Wight' at the back and Garlic
'Lautrec Wight' at the front 

Finished digging over Onion Bed, Harvested a Carrot and looking ahead to Brassica Bed and Polytunnel edges.

This morning I went down onto Allotment 2 once again. I continued and managed to finish digging over where the Onion bed will be from September onwards.

Cleared where the Onion Bed will go,
including around the Globe Artichoke at the end

Pile of all the weeds, and showing the clearing of the
weeds next to the environmesh tunnel containing
Carrots and Parsnips

Harvested while clearing next to Environmesh tunnel

Below I have also taken a picture of where the Onion and Shallots are at the moment. This will be cleared shortly to make way for my Brassica Bed for the year ahead.

Previous Onion Bed, containing some onions,
garlic and shallots as well as some beetroot.

I have also got to put soil over the edges of the Polytunnel to keep it down firmly. I will put some bulbs down here to brighten up the area during the Spring.

Right hand side of the Polytunnel

Left hand side of the Polytunnel, this will need
digging out, the soil put back over the Polytunnel
edges and some bulbs will be put in

Cleared where Autumn Shallots and Garlic will be planted on Allotment 2, looking at the Allotments and Harvested some first early potatoes and one Red Onion

This afternoon I went down onto allotment 2 for about 1 1/2 hours. The plot currently has a lot of weeds on it and this is mostly due to the onions still being in the ground as well as lots of potatoes taking up the ground which mean's I am not able to weed effectively. The weeding will be done over the time that these are taken up. The Polytunnel will also need to be sorted, by putting the soil back round the edges as well as clearing the inside and outside (The courgette is still producing very well and the french beans (although nearly destroyed when the polytunnel took off) some are cropping surprisingly. Down the far end of the allotment under some enviromesh there are some carrots and parsnips that I sowed back in May however these have been taken over by weeds so this will need to be weeded at some point and hopefully they will still be growing. The Runner beans appear to be starting to climb there supports (at last) and may crop at some point in the near future.

A very weedy plot, onions in the foreground with the potatoes behind,
Runner beans further on and Environmesh with carrots and parsnips
underneath in the background

The Polytunnel with a Courgette plant at the very end, Strawberry plants either side of this
and some climbing French beans in amongst the weeds.

I started to clear where the onion bed will be for the next late 2015/2016 season. This is where I planted some Broad Beans, that unfortunately failed this year, and is where the Globe Artichoke plant is at the end of the rows.

Patch coved in weedliner where some of the Broadbeans
were.  I put this weedliner downlast week to surpress some of the weeds

I also looked at Allotment 1. This plot is currently occupied with my First early potatoes as well as some brassica's down the end before my Fruit cage. The big piece of vacant ground I will now use for some Sweet Pea's next year as well as sowing some pea's in the autumn. The Raised bed's will need clearing at some point as well as the Greenhouse which has got some bindwind inside. The cold frame needs clearing of the crops that died as they didn't get put into the ground in time.

Vacant piece of land in the foreground,
First early potatoes in the middle and towards
the back my Brassica cage and fruit cage behind.

The cold frame and raised beds and Greenhouse.

I also harvested the following from the Allotment's today:

One of the overwintering 'Red Winter' onions.
This appears to be the biggest and this was from
Allotment 2.

Some of the First early 'Rocket' Potatoes. This
came from 2 plants which were on Allotment
1. As seen one was quite big.