Sowing root crops

After a gloomy morning doing housework, the sun came out and out we went to the allotment. I started by sowing some carrot seeds. We, like so many others, suffer to some degree with carrot root fly damage. I was reading about ways to tackle the problem in the April edition of the Kitchen Garden magazine but none of the answers seemed satisfactory. It suggested fine netting completely covering the crop as one solution but this brings other problems such as inability to weed or deal with other pests. And if you miss-time the netting then you could trap the maggots inside, free to do their damage without attack from their predators. Last year I tried sowing my carrots with a row of onions for every row of carrots. It mentioned such companion planting in the article but suggest that far more onions were needed to make it work. Well, socks to that, I'm sure it helped.

Anyway, this year I have decided to repeat the carrot/onion planting. It certainly didn't do any harm last year and I want to grow both anyway. I've also decided to sow flowers around the outer border of the bed too. This may add to the confusion of perfumes but mainly it is because I seem to have accumulated a load of flower seed packets and it would be nice to have some flowers somewhere on the allotment for the pollinators.

Last year I tried sowing some parsnip seeds in 4 of the carrot rows. Parsnips are notoriously temperamental germinators so if you sow them on their own, firstly you struggle to remember where the row is whilst the parsnips get round to germinating, and, secondly, the germination is usually patchy and you end up wasting a row for 3 or 4 plants. The idea behind sowing with the carrots is that you know where the row is because the carrots germinate fairly quickly, secondly you don't waste a row because the carrots are there to fill the spaces, and thirdly, once you have harvested all your carrots you have a lovely thinned row of parsnips for the winter. Anyway, this worked so well last year that I have decided to sow parsnips in every carrot row this year. That could result in a lot of parsnips but they are a brilliant winter crop and I love roasted parsnips with a roast dinner.

Carrot seeds are very fine and need a fine "tilth" to germinate well. To help us achieve this in our heavy clay, Steve rotavated the bed for me earlier in the week. Having pulled out "drills" with my hoe, I then sprinkled in potting compost and sharp sand to give a lovely surface for the seeds. If the soil had been dry I would have watered the bottom of each drill at this point but having had 10cm of rain (according to my daughter's rain gauge) in the last two day watering wasn't needed.

Finally it was time to sow the carrot seeds - 8 different varieties - I like variety! This included some purple and some red carrots because novelties like this amuse my girls as much as they do me. There were also the old reliables such as Early Nantes, James Intermediate and Autumn King, as well as a variety I'd not tried before and have now forgotten the name of.

I often sow beetroot seeds in the same bed as the carrots but with room taken up with the flower seeds and onion sets I'd run out of space and I had to sow the beetroot elsewhere. We love beetroot and it stands well until it gets very frosted. The year before last I really struggled to get beetroot to germinate and we had very little to harvest so last year I decided to see what would happen if I sowed some in modules and planted them out as plug plants. They took ages to germinate but it was useful to plant them out well spaced rather than having some bunched together and then large gaps elsewhere as you get from sowing seeds. This year I didn't get round to sowing them in trays so I needed to sow direct. I read recently that soaking the seed for half an hour before hand can aid germination so I have tried this. We'll have to see what happens.

In the same bed as the beetroot I also sowed a couple of rows of spring onions, some rocket, spinach and two types of lettuce. I've also left some space so I can successionally sow more salad leaves over the next few weeks to help avoid a glut at one time and then nothing.

Having done all that I still had quite a lot of onion sets left and it really is getting a bit late to get these in so I needed to get on with it. A quick survey of the plot told me that the best place to plant these would in the bed next to the carrots. On the other side of the carrots I had already planted shallots and a few red onion sets so if I put onions on the other side the carrots would be flanked with onion as well as interplanted with them, surely some help against carrot root fly! Does that sound like a lot of onions? Well, they store well and we use them all the time but they are also an essential chutney ingredient.

The only problem with my assessment was that the bed on the other side of the carrots still had the remains of some brassica plants in as well as a good scattering of weeds. Brassicas, you should know, like a firm soil and I didn't much fancy having to dig over firm soil. Still, it needed doing and as it happened the soil was remarkably soft thanks to the recent rain. So it didn't take long to dig over and then I filled it up with rows and rows of brown and red onion sets.

Time to stand back and admire my handwork I'd say! Things are beginning to take shape!

Alliums coming and going

It was a beautiful spring day this morning so I suggested to my girls that they played in the garden whilst I put the washing out. That went down well and they were keen to let loose with their bikes so I suggested we headed to the allotment. When you have bright sunshine and keen children you don't hesitate. I grabbed the allotment key, my bucket of tools and the trays of shallots and got going.

I managed to plant 70 shallot sets and 70 red onion sets before the first serious squatting of the year took its toll on my legs. Then I harvested about a dozen leeks of various sizes before we went home for lunch. I was starving hungry by then and my legs were a bit wobbly... hmmm hopefully my muscles will get used to gardening again before the end of March.

Having refueled and rested my legs over lunch it was time to deal with the leeks. Mostly I sliced them up, blanched them and froze them. The centre of the leeks show signs of flower stalks forming so they are in the process of bolting and definitely need preserving now.

I kept a couple of leeks to make leek and apricot stuffing balls. These are delicious but it's not often that I just happen to have all the ingredients in to make them without deliberate planning. Today was one of those happy co-incident days. They are yummy cooked with roast chicken or pork and they will live happily in my freezer until I'm ready for them.

I'll need to continue harvesting the leeks and processing them over the next week and at the same time I will need to finish off planting the onion sets. So as one lot of alliums comes out of the ground a new lot goes in. Ain't that wonderful.

Leek & Apricot Stuffing Balls
(makes 20-24)

7 0z (200g) leeks, chopped
41/2 oz (125g) dried apricots, chopped
1 onion or 4-5 shallots, chopped
2 springs fresh sage, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
6 oz (175g) breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
4 oz (110g) sausagemeat (optional if vegetarian)
2 eggs

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir then add the sausagemeat and the eggs and mix it up well using your hands. Pull out bits of the stuffing and mould into balls about the size of a ping pong ball. Place the balls on a tray and cover with clingfilm. Freeze, then once solid decant into a freezer bag. Thaw before cooking at 190°C for 25 minutes on a baking tray.

Shopping for gardening stuff

This morning was a beautiful spring day - perhaps a little deceptive as colder, wintery weather is forecast for later in the week. Still, it puts a spring in your step and makes it feel as if anything would grow!

My after school gardening club starts again tomorrow with a new bunch of 5 to 7 year olds. Last week I finally managed to get the planning for this half term sorted. It'd tried during half term but somehow the cold, snowy weather had made it difficult for me to focus my thoughts. So now the next 5 weeks are mapped out pretty well with a more hazy idea of the weeks from April to July. It is a weird way to garden - once a week for one hour and with a 6 week gap mid July to end of August. I've learnt a few things from my experience last year so this year I shall be keeping in the successes but trying a few new ideas too.

I usually go shopping on a Monday morning but today I thought I'd start with a few of the "money-saving" shops such as Pound Stretcher, Poundland, Wilkinsons and Lidls to see if they had some gardening bargain in. It is amazing what you can pick up in these shops and they have some great gardening stuff at this time of year.

Every year I flick through all the seed catalogues looking for the best deal on onion sets - red and brown - and every year I'm underwelmed by the results. I've tried heat-treated and non-heat treated, collections and individual varieties. But now I have learnt that it works out much cheaper and just as reliably to go down to Wilkinsons in March and buy some nets of onion sets down there. So with this in mind I headed out to the shops.

Pound Stretcher first - they had some summer flowering bulbs in, mini cold frames (already have those), and other interesting gardening items but nothing I needed today. Then Poundland - more summer flowering bulbs, some garden ornaments and seed trays etc. They're also got the plastic Easter eggs back in too that I use for the Easter egg hunt for gardening club (more on that closer to the time) but I saved these from last year so don't need to buy them again now. Still, I managed to pick up a handy multi-pocket folder that will help keep all my notes and resources neat for gardening club.

Then into Wilkinsons, with a trolley this time. Two bags of red onion sets (£1.25 for 250g) and a bag of brown (£1.25 for 500g). They have lots of interesting things in today - seed potatoes, mushroom kits, herbs in pots, horseradish roots, fruit bushes... but I'm selective about what I'll buy from a place like this because they clearly don't employ anyone to look after these things and sitting on a shelf for weeks in their packaging is far from ideal. I notice they are selling off some plug plants for half price but when I inspect them the plants are completely dried out! Still, they have 4 cloves of elephant garlic for £2 and I've fancied growing that for ages but they are often much more expensive than that, so I add them to my trolley. They have sets of 4 plug plants for £1.50 and I decide to buy some tomatoes. This is probably a mistake as I don't have a greenhouse and my windowsills are a bit gloomy but for £1.50 maybe it is worth a try to get some early tomatoes. I pick up some sage and thyme plugs too for the herb garden I want to grow with my club. I'm surprised by how perky these plug plants look but on closer inspection I see that they are sat in a tray of moisture retaining gel so that explains it.

Finally I add 2 trays of 20 pansy plugs (2 for £7). I was looking for something that the gardening club children could give as a mother's day present in a fortnight and this seems like the perfect thing. I'd had primulas in mind but these are clearly going over right now. Now all I need to do is keep these healthy for 2 weeks until needed then the children can plant up 2 each and I'll use what's left to make up a hanging basket for home. There are loads of other interesting things but that's enough for today - besides it's a bit of a walk back to my car and I have to carry all this stuff!

Next to Lidls. They have got lots of gardening things in right now but nothing much left in the way of plants. I treat myself to a new pair of secaturs for £2, some decorative fun canes for the girls' plots, a sprayer, and a pair of slip on gardening shoes for when I need to hang the washing out.

So this afternoon I unpacked the lot and put the onion sets and elephant garlic out in the shady coldframe with the shallots and seed potatoes. I thoroughly watered the pansies and put the two trays in the other coldframe. I potted on the plug herbs and these too went into the coldframe. Finally, I potted on the tomato seedlings and put them on the windowsill. It feels like I've had a good gardening day but I'm a little concerned how things will fair in the coldframe. After all, it was still February two days ago! Oh for a heated greenhouse!