The alliums should generally appreciate the loose friable soil left after the potatoes were dug, and also benefit from the effects of the manure that was added to the beds in the winter.
Bed 1: Leeks As soon as the last of the first early potatoes have been lifted in July, I will plant out Leeks. These will have been sown under cover in February and planted out into the holding bed in spring, giving them space to grow. By July they should be the size of pencils.
Together with the brassicas, the leeks will be a welcome addition to the table during the winter, when fresh veg is so scarce. By March/April next year any leeks that remain will put on a final spurt and need to be harvested before they start throwing up seed stems.
Bed 2 : Assorted Greens: (Rocket, Mizuna, Spinach, Sugarloaf Chicory, Lettuces, Corn Salad, Landcress, Winter Purslane, Leaf Beet, Ruby Chard) It is worth being systematic about whereabouts in the bed the various plants are sown. Timing is critical. The plan is to dovetail the successional sowing of peas next year with land vacated by the just-harvested greens sown this year. Theoretically this should work, but we shall see!
At one end of the bed I will sow seeds of quick maturing plants like Rocket, Mizuna and Spinach, which will be harvested and out of the ground by winter. Here too is the site for Sugarloaf Chicory plants. (These will have been started off elsewhere in early July.)
In the middle of the bed I will sow vegetables that will die down in winter but come back to life in the spring. Firstly a few rows of Lettuces for overwintering. Some of these will be transplanted into the greenhouse in October. The rest can be left in the ground over winter and, with luck, and careful choice of variety, they will start growing again strongly in March/April. By the time the space where they are growing is needed for the peas, they should be big enough for transplanting elsewhere. (I’m thinking of interplanting with some of the brassicas.) Last year my Valdor lettuce plantlets survived a couple of weeks of temperatures that reached as low as -11oC in late November/early December! The frosts cut them down, of course, but by the spring fresh leaves had started growing from the roots and they provided welcome salads at a time when the spring-sown lettuces were just getting started.
Next to the lettuce I can sow seeds of plants which will survive the winter, such as Corn Salad, Landcress, and Winter Purslane. I should get a few pickings of leaves, to add interest to salads, all through the winter.
Next to the lettuce I can sow seeds of plants which will survive the winter, such as Corn Salad, Landcress, and Winter Purslane. I should get a few pickings of leaves, to add interest to salads, all through the winter.
Then finally, at the back end of the bed, I can sow Leaf Beet and Ruby Chard. These too will grow back in the spring, providing welcome leaves for salads, stir-fries and braising, through till early summer, when the last of the peas need to go in
Beds 3&4: Onions Two of the three beds which contained maincrop potatoes will host onions next. The oldest allotmenteer I know (89 years old!) puts the wood ash from his autumn bonfire on his onion beds, and his are superb, so I will do the same. Wood ash is something I am not short of, as I have a wood burner at home.
I will plant out a bed of Overwintering Onion Sets in September/October. The other bed will contain Spring Planted Onion Sets, planted in late March.
Theoretically it is possible to plant onions 6” apart in all directions, but I have such a weed-seed problem (and bearing in mind that after the potato digging lots more seeds will have been brought to the surface), that I find it better to leave 12” between rows, so that a hoe can easily get through.
By late June/early July, the overwintering onions will have developed to their full size, the foliage should be dying down and the onions will be ready for lifting. However I like to lift a few as soon as they start bulbing up in May. We are still in the hunger gap at this time, and any fresh veg is a welcome addition to the plate. These first onions are very versatile – the green leaves can be used in salads, the developing bulbs can be boiled or roasted, and the shoulder (ie the bit between the bulb and the leaves) can be called into service for frying and the other more normal oniony duties.
Once the leaves go brown the onions should be lifted straight away - last year I left them in the soil too long and some of them started softening from underneath. The onions planted the previous autumn can be stored for a few months, but they won't last through the winter. When they start getting past it, I usually make French Onion Soup for the freezer! Those planted in March are used for winter storage. They will need careful drying and stringing and will spend the winter giving an oniony fragrance to my garden shed.
Bed 5: Garlic, Shallots and Salad Onions As soon as the overwintering onion sets are in, it’s time to start on the Garlic. Garlic always does best if it has a decent period of cold weather after planting, so I plant it in the autumn, rather than the spring as some experts suggest. I use similar spacings as for the onions: 6” apart in rows 12” apart.
Few gardeners grow Shallots any more, so I will digress for a few moments and explain why I find room for them in my allotment. Firstly they are easy to grow and reliable. Secondly you can save your own for planting the following year, which makes them a lot cheaper bet than onions. Thirdly they are versatile: larger bulbs can be used like onions, although they have a better flavour according to the TV chefs; smaller bulbs can be pickled like onions (I like pickled onions and find shallots easier to grow than onions from seed), and the tiddlers can be put out in the spring and the shoots used in salads.
There does not seem to be a consensus about when it is best to plant out shallots. Some authorities suggest the autumn, indeed the instructions on a pack I bought from the garden centre last month said between October and December. Traditionally we were told to “plant on the shortest day and harvest on the longest”. But other authorities suggest the spring; Monty Don, on TV’s Gardener’s World this year, started his off in pots in the greenhouse in February/March time.
I have decided to try all three systems. The ones I bought from the Garden Centre I planted in October. Some of my saved shallots I will put out in mid-December. The rest I will plant the Monty Don way. We shall see……
Finally I will sow 2 or 3 rows of Winter-Hardy Salad Onions. They will start being ready in April and should see me through till June.
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