Tuesday 18 September 2012

Mail Order Alliums

Of all the things I had no idea about before starting off this allotment game, high up the list of previously held ignorances is the extent of stuff you can grow over winter. I was vaguely aware that kale was a wintery thing as I remember my mum cooking us seemingly endless kale-based meals when we were kids. I wasn't keen on the stuff back then, though I love it now. However; broad beans, onions, garlic, spinach, hardy lettuces, and no end of brassicas- who knew?!

Last year we grew shenshyu overwintering onions and some unknown variety of garlic, both of which were procured from a stall at Newcastle Quayside Market, with mixed results.  The onions did not too badly at all, despite trying to run to seed quite frequently. The garlic wasn't so great, producing piddly little cloves that I can scarcely be bothered to peel. This year we've gotten a bit more organised and have just engaged Thomson and Morgan to provide us with a mixed selection of garlic, three different types of onions, plus some "Shakespeare" as they seem to be well-rated. I'm looking forward to these arriving so we can see which work well. I'm especially looking forward to the elephant garlic - even though it's not a "proper" garlic - as at least we should be able to get some decent sized cloves of the stuff. Godspeed our fine prospective alliums!

5 comments:

  1. We bought this garlic selection last year but we ended up with far too much garlic so this year we have confined ourselves to two varieties and elephant. I did quite a few blog posts about how we grew it and how it fared. We're also waiting for our winter onion to arrive

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aha, we're in good company then! I'll be sure to have a look at your posts for advice on growing decent bulbs of garlic. What kind of winter onions have you gone for?

      Delete
    2. We've ordered Red CRoss, Troy ans Seshyu Yellow from Marshalls

      Delete
  2. I wish you luck waiting for your order...last year T&G posted out my garlic so late I couldn't plant it until spring....hope you get better service from them.

    As for my winter growing...I am as un-organised as ever...maybe I will get it right next year!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, thanks for letting us know, I'll need to look into that...

      Delete

All comments gratefully received. Sorry about the word verification thing, but I've started getting bombed by spam.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...