2021 Week 2 - Bubbles, glitching, edible perennials, shallots and pilates.

Lockdown
Surely no-one can write a blog at the moment without mentioning lockdown. 

Covid-19 has become scary again. If I could I would be happy staying here on the smallholding sheltered from the rest of the world. But schools remain open. We have over a quarter of our pupils coming in daily along with the added complication of teaching the rest on Zoom and furnishing them with enough learning activities to keep busy and engaged.

To reduce the number of 'bubbles' within the school, we now have the school split into two halves. Teachers are physically in school every other week, teaching from home on alternate weeks.

If I hear the words "Mr Pegden, it's glitching" one more time...

The zoom classroom.
There's a problem on the board for you to solve!

 

We've had a couple of foggy days this week

A bit of sun, a bit of snow, a bit of fog, a lot of rain
And no English conversation can proceed without being preceded by the weather. The week started wet and the water still takes an eternity to drain away so we have puddles the size of small lakes. We are still in the middle of winter though, so temperatures haven't strayed too far from zero. At least the ground is not so slippery when it's frozen solid, but by midday it has usually thawed. This is the time of day when I can work most comfortably outside though I have now adapted to the cold and don't really feel it as long as I wear a few layers.

The dyke is full again and the puddles are back.
The hardy Shetland sheep don't really mind.

My Edible Perennial Patch
The big project in the veg patch at the moment is an edible perennial garden. The postie has been bringing me strange tubers and new seed varieties and I have been moving some of the existing perennials around. Now is a good time to move or divide them while they are dormant.

Many of the tubers I have received, such as chufa, apios, oca and Madeiran vine, need to be stored awhile before they go in the ground. Others, such as yacon, eddoe and galangal have been potted up and I am hoping they will begin to shoot so they can get a headstart for the year. I'll write more about these unusual food plants as the year progresses.

The perennial patch is starting to take shape. I have a basic plan so that it can incorporate the asparagus plants already there (I spent three days hands and knees weeding these to restore the bed to vitality) as well as sorrel and horseradish. An existing greengauge tree and  cider apple tree are at the centre of the design. The aim is to create a small forest garden. 
We shifted a rhubarb to the base of the greengauge, where I also intend to cultivate mushrooms later in the season. We dug up and moved quite a few of the elephant grasses too, filling gaps and creating a tall, swishy backdrop for the garden - the savanna bordering the forest! Dividing a bamboo was a trickier job than I had anticipated. There were several attempts by the bamboo to poke out my eyes!

Chinese artichoke
about to be transplanted

I also dug up my existing bed of Chinese artichokes which were sited where my greenhouse is going to go (I have put off constructing this for longer than I care to remember). They had been long forgotten and invaded by couch grass and willowherb, but the tubers persisted. I selected out the strongest tubers and replanted them in the gaps where the asparagus has failed.

The perennial patch will become a regular feature of this blog as it develops throughout the year.

Early seed sowing
The annual cycle of seed sowing has started too. Just a few crops for now and mostly those which will end up in the polytunnel. Mangetout and coriander are the first. But patience is required as there is no point starting seeds too early in the year. They will struggle without sufficient heat and light and will be held back waiting for correct conditions outside.

Seed sowing has begun!

As usual I am super organised and have now received all my seeds for the year. Many people don't even think about this until early Spring, but they may well be disappointed for a second year in succession. One of the good effects of lockdown is a renewed interest in growing your own which has resulted in some seed companies having to stop orders or limit quantities. Of course, staff sickness and fewer staff due to space is affecting the suppliers too. So if you're still with me and planning on doing some growing this year, best get onto those seed purchases without further delay.

Shallots
The shallots have been planted out this week too. I save the bulbs from year to year but I am never quite sure when to set them out in the soil. I think any time between January and March is fine. Some were beginning to rot though as I failed to give them enough air flow in storage, so it seemed a good time to sort through them. On average each bulb should split into between four and nine shallots. That's not a bad return. I know that with garlic a period of cold is supposed to help make sure they divide and don't just grow into one big bulb, so I wonder if the same might be true of shallots.

Pilates - an unexpected New Year Resolution
Finally it's back to school again. We still have a dance teacher come in for the children who are attending school - we also zoom the lesson into homes for others to join in. This week part of the routine was pilates. I had always dismissed this without knowing anything about it. But as I watched I was struck by the elements of yoga and some similarities with tai chi. I have been vaguely considering both of these as a bit of gentle lockdown exercise and mindfulness.
As I have gotten older, despite leading quite an active lifestyle, my body has started to seize up. I am about as flexible as a gnarled, stubborn old oak tree! I have been having back problems too. I have found myself having to limit what I do to accommodate the preservation of my body. My mind finds it frustrating.
But as I watched the pilates I began to notice how it focused on strength through the core of the body. I used to have very strong stomach and back muscles until some major internal replumbing when I was forty. Even watching from the sidelines I could see how pilates might just be the form of exercise I needed.Then along came an exercise which was exactly the same as one the hospital physio had given me to do.  When I got home I looked up pilates on Youtube and was in for more surprises. The second clip I watched was a perfect match for the first set of physio exercises I had been given for my back troubles. The physios had just nabbed everything from Youtube pilates!!!

So there is my new year resolution. Sue is keen to join in too so that will make it all the more enjoyable.

Anyway, I can't put off feeding the chickens any longer. We've had a little snow overnight followed by rain so the ground will be treacherous outside.

Next week I'll show you my latest seed storage solution. We'll be sowing spinach, lettuce, onion and aubergine too. And hopefully my kaffir lime seeds will have germinated.

Garlic and Shallots - Divide and Conquer

Tuesday 9th January 2018
The final order for ducklings from fellow smallholders was 226. I look forward to the day they all come.
Garlic and shallots in the ground
I got the garlic planted today as planned. The cloves are planted just below the surface. The more space you give each one, the larger the final bulbs (within limits). The main choice is whether to plant on a square grid pattern or in rows. Either way, you get roughly the same number in the same space. I prefer rows as it's easier to cultivate in between the plants later on when the weeds are running riot.
They should still catch a few heavy frosts which they need so the cloves divide later in the year.
Garlic gives a fantastic return, with approximately a ten-fold increase on your original investment in just half a year. If I had replanted all of the offspring from the original three bulbs every year I would be growing 300000 bulbs this year! I think I'll stick to the usual 100.

I got 30 shallots planted too, ones I saved from last year. These grow in a similar way to garlic, one set dividing into maybe 5 or 6 during the year. It's like free food every year.

The geese have been keeping the grass short in the orchard and have been wandering further up the land. It is nice to see them feeding in the young woodland.
There was a treat for them today as I discovered a few missed carrots in the ground as I was clearing one of the polytunnel beds.

The chickens 'helping out' in the tunnel.

The polytunnel is usually a strict no go zone

for the chooks as they can wreak havoc,

but I like them to scratch around when I'm having my annual clear out.

That's all for this post. Thanks shallot! (sorry, but it makes me chuckle every year)

Ready. Steady. Grow!

20th January 2017
Christmas is over
Christmas is well and truly over for another year when the tree gets thrown to the sheep. As we had an artificial tree this year, I recovered the one which was about to go in the school skip. The Shetland sheep love a bit of Christmas tree and will spend the next week gradually stripping it of needles and bark.




21st January 2017
A pottering day. I finished pruning the apples and pears and moved on to the blackberries, which didn't get pruned in late autumn when they should have been. For now I've just cut back all the shoots which fruited last year and cleared some of the weeds from around the base. I am erecting new posts and wires when I get round to it, at which point I shall train the stems in hope of a better harvest. The blackberries and associated hybrids (tayberries, loganberries etc) have never really taken off, so this year I am going to put extra effort into them.

In the evening I met up with the Grow Your Own group for our annual meal. It was supposed to happen before Christmas, but I'm rather glad we left it till after.
A very nice time was had by all.

22nd January 2017
A late start today, but there was still a hard frost well towards the middle of the day. I took advantage and rotavated the bed where the garlic and shallots are due to grow.

Boris and Arthur keen to help with the plucking

Poultry executions
Then I'm afraid it was time for a few of the birds to go. The spare turkey stag was first and I got straight on with the plucking while he was still warm. This sounds a bit callous, but the warmer the body the easier the plucking. Hopefully the four remaining turkeys will settle down nicely now that there is just the one silver male.
Then it was a goose. I had only ever once dispatched a goose and that was a mercy mission, so I was a bit hesitant about this. However, it was actually fairly easy, nowhere near as difficult as some of the ducks are. Plucking, on the other hand, was an endless task. It seemed that the feathers had the ability to regenerate eternally. I left Sue to do the more delicate quills and down feathers while I got on with the next catch and dispatch, this time the spare old cockerel. I kept well away from his sizeable spurs, as these have been known to inflict deep wounds in the past! Again, cutting the number of testosterone-filled males down should help with the overall welfare of the flock, particularly with them all cooped up inside for at least another five weeks.

Finally, another four of the Ixworth meat chickens had grown plump enough for the pot.

23rd January 2017
Everlasting Garlic
I spent the first part of the morning jointing the chickens we dispatched yesterday.
The day started clear, but as the sun tried to break through it drove all the moisture out of the ground and into the air. A thick fog enveloped the farm for the whole afternoon.
I got on with planting the garlic and shallots. All the literature advises buying in special bulbs for growing garlic, warning of poor results and disease if you try to use shop-bought bulbs or dare to save a few from year to year. Well, maybe I just struck lucky when I purchased a few green bulbs from Pretty Fruiterers several years ago when I was down in The Big Smoke for a hospital appointment.
But those cloves have served me very well. I get juicy white bulbs every year which last right through into late winter. Come late January the strings of garlic cloves come back to life and cry out to be planted. I pick the best hundred or so cloves out and just poke them into the ground. The rest get given away or processed into garlic paste or powder.
Come midsummer, I'll be drying over 100 garlic bulbs.
Cost = about £1. Harvest so far = about 400 bulbs and rising.

24th January 2017
Dentist.
Crown fitting.
Tooth extraction.
Enough said.

I planned to travel North after the dentist to see a White-billed Diver, a high Arctic sea-dwelling bird which had somehow managed to end up feeding along a 5 mile stretch of inland Lincolnshire river for the last few days.
However, I had underestimated the impact of my dental work, so instead I headed home to sleep it off before spending the evening sorting my seeds.
Chitting begins
I did summon up the energy to set my New Potatoes chitting properly. They had already started of their own accord as I purchased them super early. These ones will be going into the polytunnel very soon to give me a fantastic early harvest.

25th January 2017
On a Cold and Frosty Morning...
We have had an excellent run of frosty mornings and today was no exception.
Still on the road to recovery, I decided to take the dogs for a long walk along the river. It was foggy again and we walked along in our own bubble of clear air.

I couldn't see the wild swan flock in the fields by the river today. I think they were there in the fog somewhere. However, one lone Whooper Swan was on the river bank and slid into the water as we approached. This is unusual for the whoopers, but I think it had lost its mate. It was calling quite dolefully.

Later in the evening the dogs, tired from their walk, took a well-deserved rest on the sofa, alongside Sue and Gerry.

26th January 2017
Today I compiled my seed orders for the year. The plans are done, the sowing season is upon us and it's all systems go!

27th January 2017
First seeds planted - chilli, aubergine and celeriac.
These three need a long, long growing season so I have taken to starting them off very early over a heated propagator. The seedlings will need some tender care during their early lives, but hopefully I will be reaping the rewards later in the year, when the fog and the frost are long forgotten.

Pruned Plums and a Purple Chicken

30th July 2016
My Plums Are Pruned
I finally got my plums pruned! It doesn't look like a good year for orchard fruits though. The spring rains saw to that.
With a little bit of rain in the mix this last few days, the soil is perfect for weeding, so I spent most of the day just generally tidying up the veg beds. It gave me a chance to check on the progress of all my crops and to kill a few giant slugs!
Signs of autumn
Migrant birds seem to like the hedge that borders the veg patch and today saw the first returning migrants of the autumn (yes, I've used that word, AUTUMN!) A blackcap was tacking and a smart young Chiffchaff was getting chased all over the place by one of our resident robins, talking of which, look what I found today when I took a basket down from the stable wall to do some harvesting, so someone's not yet ready for autumn. I carefully put the basket back and will enjoy watching the robin rear its young.

The rape stubble in the field next door is proving rather attractive to birds at the moment. A small flock of starlings has moved in and I counted 73 Lapwings too.

31st July
Purple Chicken interrupts proceedings
I harvested more shallots today and the last of the early beetroots. Some had bolted and were much appreciated by the chickens.
Sue is going to pickle them for me. For some odd reason beetroots are the only thing I actually like pickled.

Major job for the day was mowing. I collected the grass today rather than spitting it back out - the compost heaps need some green stuff to get them going. I have 8 compost heaps and they are all full to bursting at the moment.
So I spent a very satisfying couple of hours whizzing around everywhere, oblivious to the rest of the world. It was late afternoon when I finally ran out of petrol and decided to take a little break before finishing the job.

I looked at my phone and saw a tweet with the hashtag #purpleswamphentwitch. I then noticed 20 messages!
I grabbed my bins and scope, had a mad search for my wallet and jumped in the car still in my grassy old gardening clothes. I set the SatNav for Minsmere RSPB and began the arduous cross country drive to the Suffolk coast. I should get there by 7 which would give a good couple of hours light to see the bird.

Purple Swamphen used to be called Purple Gallinule. I prefer the new name. It is also known as Purple Swamp Chicken, which is an even better name. It is basically a monster-sized moorhen, a purple-blue chicken with a stonking bright red bill, a red iris and bright red legs ending in ridiculously ginormous red feet! It spends most of its time wandering along the edge of reedbeds, often just inside the reeds, looking for tasty bits of old reed stem to eat. When it finds a good bit, it grips it between its toes and bites off chunks with its secateur mandibles.

There have been Purple Swamphens in this country before, but they have virtually all been of one of the more exotic eastern races and judged to have escaped from captivity. But today's bird was of the Western race, which breeds in Spain and Southern France. Add to that the fact that several this year have ended up far north of their breeding range, including Britanny which currently has its first record (presumably wild) and this Minsmere bird looks like it might be the real deal.
Purple Swamphens are a dispersive species, which means that individuals will wander quite widely if their pools dry up or after breeding.

It was good to catch up with many old friends at this evening's twitch.

And so it was that I found myself joining a crowd of over a hundred twitchers, peering through gaps in reeds waiting for the bird to make an appearance. It had walked out of view and I had a tense half hour wait before it came back along the reedy edge. First views were of its white undertail flicking up and down, then its gaudy red legs and bill. Finally the whole bird. What a monster!
I watched it for the next hour, until it flew across the pool and out of sight, those long legs and ginormous feet dangling as it did so.

I pulled back onto the farm at just gone 11 o'clock.
Hopefully the forecast rain will hold off for long enough tomorrow for me to finish the mowing.

The summer time of my life

20th July 2016
50! How did that happen? I am 50 years old!
I used to say I still felt 20 in my mind and about 70 in my body but I think that's changed a little now. I think I think a little more old these days, so maybe 30 in my mind, though some would say more like 6! And that's partially true too, which is why I am such a brilliant teacher. I am also starting to benefit from the confidence of age.
As for the 70 in body, to be fair there are days when I feel I can do anything and days when every single inch of my body seems to ache and groan.
I have done a lot in my 50 years on this planet (not that I spent any time before that on another planet, though again some would disagree). I don't intend to do quite so much in the next 50 years, but I do intend to savour and enjoy most of it.
I don't really do birthdays, or any celebrations for that matter, but especially not birthdays. My preference would have been that it pass by largely unnoticed. I got as close to this as was probably possible and celebrated with a quiet meal out with Sue in the evening. I splashed out and went for almost the most expensive thing on the menu but there was no way I was paying an extra £2 for a sauce to go with my fillet steak! That would be too wild a celebration!

There was a better reason for celebration today, for I finished work at midday and I'm not due back in till 1st September.

21st July 2016
Back to normal today.
One of the young chicks in the broody box was clearly not well today. I tried gently holding its beak to the water trough, I placed it under the electric hen to warm up, but as usual when a bird is ill it did not respond. After a couple of hours I decided to end it quickly. Better for the chick and better to remove it from the others too. Five years ago I would have struggled to do this and put it off, but I have hardened up now. I still quietly say sorry and I still have a sad feeling in my heart. Compassion sometimes means being decisive.

The turkey family picking through the cut grass

With the protracted spell of summer proper, I took advantage and started mowing the lawns. They've got out of control again and the mower needs a new blade so it was slow work. I just mowed paths through the sward to allow the air in and the grass to dry a little.

This year's lambs in the foreground

Next job on such a fine day was another chemical attack on those nasty nettles and thistles. I've left a few patches for the wildlife, but any others that spring up need to be dealt with harshly, particularly since I seem to have become very reactive to nettle stings, an almost daily occurrence which needs nipping in the bud. I resprayed the electric fence line too. This tactic seems to be working well. I'd rather not use any spray but needs must. Physically controlling the weeds and the growth under the fence are not possible on this scale. I use minimum sprays and just about everything else I do on the smallholding is pretty much for the benefit of wildlife.

That's shallot of shallots!
Last year's stored onions have come to an end now and this year's are not quite ready. It's not looking like a great crop coming so thank goodness for the shallots, which were ready to harvest today after a few sunny days to dry them out.

Lady Penelope, Single Parent
There was still time to lop some of the trees along the boundary. The branches go to the sheep who love stripping off the leaves and the bark. Nothing goes to waste here. It was while I was doing this that I spotted Lady Penelope Peacock and she was accompanied by a single poult, now large enough to be showing a clear crest. I had not seen her for a couple of weeks and was fearing for her.

The days are long now so I can get stacks done when I'm off work. But darkness still comes in the end and todays dusk brought with it a calling Little Owl in the old ash trees and a calling Barn Owl, a nice combo.

22nd July 2016
Chicken in a basket box
Every day now I move the Ixworth chicks outside into a large dog cage on the lawn and every night they go back into the garage under the heat lamp. The accommodation en route is cosy!

Bad service
I finally managed to get through to someone to order a spare rotavator belt and mower blade. It's taken three phone calls and two ignored emails to finally get someone who didn't pass the problem on to an empty phone extension. It took 18 minutes on the phone and I'm not confident I've moved much further forwards despite the promises. It's a shame as Abbey Garden Sales have provided me with good service in the past but I am now starting to see the reasons for other people's bad reviews.

Harvest news
The first tomatoes are ready in the polytunnel and they are looking good! These are Black Cherry, Gardener's Delight, Golden Sunrise and Honybee.

There were more raspberries to be had today too. It really is a good crop this year. Delving a little deeper in the polytunnel, I came across a couple of yellow courgettes I'd missed. Here they are dwarfing the first cucumber of the year!



Some crops are already over though. Sue went out to do one final pick of the yellow mangetout plants but they were going over so the geese got a few. We've got  loads in the freezer already along with the green ones from the tunnel. Fortunately I managed to stop Sue in time to leave a few plants still standing. These are a heritage variety and I want to save the seed.

You know those jobs you keep putting off because you just know something's going to go wrong and you wish you'd never started? Well today I plugged the ride-on mower into the charger. If the battery charges up then I've just got to persuade it to start for the first time this year and to keep going. Reliability has never been my Mountfield mower's strongest point. If it had a name it would be called Flimsy!

And finally my nature note for today.
There have been strange calls coming from the ash trees for the last couple of days. In the past these calls have had me stumped, but now I recognise them as the calls of young Green Woodpeckers. Today I was lucky enough to see one of them perched out in the open on a branch next to its parent. They have timed it incredibly well, for today was also the day the ants came out. Every year they find their way into the house and swarm all over the windows. The delights of countryside living.

23rd July 2016
Harvest speeds up
Minipops
Some of the sweetcorn in the polytunnel is going absolutely bananas. In fact it actually resembles a banana plantation in there. The outdoor crop isn't far behind either.
Surprisingly the biggest plants belong to the variety Minipop. This is a corn grown for its baby cobs. You don't get a huge harvest but it adds variety and is a high value crop.
It is ready to pick as soon as the tassles appear. No need to wait for them to be pollinated. In the polytunnel I am also growing normal sweetcorn, so I actually removed the male flowers from the top of the minipop plants today so they wouldn't cross-pollinate the other variety. Hopefully this won't stem the flow of min cobs.
A word of caution here. Parts of the plant would appear to be razor sharp! A couple of slashes across my fingers are testament to this.



Anyway, after much dehusking (great material for the compost heap) I ended up with 26 baby corns to go in the freezer. There are a lot more to come too.
Gooseberry gazumped!
I moved on to harvesting the last of the gooseberries ... except they were all gone! Something had got to them first. Oh well. Not to worry. Next year I'll pick them all when they are harder and sharper. That's the best quality about gooseberries anyway.
Champion.
I moved on again, this time to the peas. I've not grown conventional peas for a few years now because of the pea moth which has a nasty habit of depositing maggots inside the pods. But this year I am trialling an old-fashioned tall pea, Champion of England. I sowed it late, at the end of April, in an attempt to avoid the period when the moth lays its eggs. Today the first plump pods were ready for picking. As ever with fresh peas they tasted amazing, little globes of summer sweetness. As this is a climbing variety they should crop over a longer period which means I can graze them rather than harvesting the whole lot at once.

Saving the Tomatoes
Another of the outdoor crops is under serious threat though. For it was only a matter of time before the potato blight spread to the tomatoes. A couple of the leaves were showing the first signs of attack today. It was time for another major prune of the toms anyway, so I removed all of the lower leaves and any sideshoots. I weeded thoroughly around the plants and tied them to their supports. The whole idea is to reduce the amount of foliage through which the blight spores can attack the plant while at the same time maximising air flow around the plants. I then mixed up a bicarbonate spray and thoroughly soaked every plant. I will repeat this once weekly for a while and with a bit of luck I might just save my outdoor tomato crop.
Outdoor tomatoes are always a huge risk and more often than not they fail. It doesn't matter too much as there are plenty coming from the greenhouse, but a bumper crop once in a while is good for stocking up the freezers with tomato sauce.

With daylight still left I started painting the garage, beginning with a first applicaton of creosote to the wood. Proper creosote is wonderful. I love the smell. It is not as nasty as people make out. In fact, one of the main reasons it's use was severely limited by the EU was to do with a very low cancer risk under specific circumstances. I get the feeling this is more about protecting large corporations rather than for any environmental reasons.

Today's nature notes
The swallow's nest in the chicken feed shed is wonderful, for it is at head level. I can raise the phone above my head and get a great view of the inside. It has been empy for a while now, but today I noticed two eggs inside. It seems they are going for another brood. Wonderful news! I counted another four active nests inside the stables today too.






Dark Daggers
Down in the chicken pen I found a small group of rather splendid caterpillars on a plum tree today. I took photos and then scoured the internet to identify them. I eventually identified them as belonging to the Dark Dagger moth. It has a great name but is actually very drab, unlike its glamorous larvae.

Taking advantage of good conditions

Boris, Arthur and Gerry were all keen to help in the garden

Boris was behaving very strangely last night and it took a while for me to work out why. It was only in the evening, as my fingers started tingling, that I realised the same may be happening to Boris's paws and nose. However I can explain my tingling, for with the soil soft and workable yesterday I had been digging out nettles. As I threw them to one side, Boris insisted on running after them and shaking them - hence his strange behaviour as he struggled to understand his strange sensations.

The weather this past weekend was somewhat disappointing. We had finally been promised that cold spell we so badly need to set the seasons right. Saturday night was forecast snow and Sunday morning a temperature plunge to several degrees below zero. Somehow we totally missed the band of snow which had others out throwing snowballs, sledging and building snowmen. Maybe because of this, overnight temperatures barely dipped below zero. At least the ground was fairly solid for a couple of days which made a pleasant change from the squelchy conditions we've had underfoot of late. With the Grow-Your-Own group visiting on Sunday, I had been having a bit of a tidy up and had a couple of moments of inspiration.

Twigs and herbs strew the ground

 - an aromatic carpet over the churned up ground.

As I trimmed the herbs which line the polytunnel ( to ward off rodents and to provide a safety zone for the mower blades) I realised I could strew them over the ground as a kind of aromatic carpet to cover the muddier walkways. Pleased with how this went, I moved on to line a muddy path by the chicken pen using a pile of hollow lovage stems. In the chicken pen, I used dryng old catmint stems to line the muddy floor - this should help deter rats too as they reputedly hate the smell.

Broken lovage stems make a good path over the mud.

Yesterday the ground was completely thawed. Thankfully a few cold, dry days had allowed the water to drain out of the soil and it had become more pliable than for a long time. Time to finally get the garlic and shallots in, before a promised low of minus four overnight.

I planted the garlic cloves 4 inches apart in rows 15 inches apart. That's a bit further apart than the rows need to be, but I'm growing something in between. I just need to make sure there's enough space for the hoe. I use a ruler for this as it's surprisingly easy to space wrongly when you're down on your hands and knees with little perspective. I will sow parsnip in between the rows, as the garlic is a good companion for it and will come out before the parsnip plants get too big.

The garlic cloves are planted about an inch deep and it won't be long before they take root and the green shoots appear above the soil. Some are already doing their best to start growing.

Until they get a good roothold, the garlic plants need protecting from the birds' scratching feet and inquisitive pecks. This was the ideal opportunity for me to try out one of my new vegetable cages - more on these in a later post - which I purchased cheaply as part of a 'Black Friday' promotion.

Next in were the shallots - generally the smallest of last year's sets saved for this year. I had about 40 to plant and this was a very quick process with the soil in the right condition. They were simply laid out on the surface at 7" intervals each way and then poked into the soft soil until just their very tips were poking out. Chicken wire went over the top to stop them being pulled out again.

Garlic advice I successfully ignored: Never grow supermarket garlic. And never save it from year to year.

The plan was to take advantage of a dry Saturday morning forecast to spend some quality time with Sue, but I awoke to the pitter patter of raindrops on the window, so you'll just have to wait a while longer to see of our living willow chair.
Instead, I've been sorting through the garlic bulbs and shallot sets.

I've selected nice plump garlic cloves which look ready to grow.

I also put aside the smallest shallot sets when I harvested them

last summer. Both of these are now, I think fourth generation.

By collecting my own, I've not experienced any fall in quality or any

disease. In fact, if anything, I think that the process of selection means that

they gradually become better adapted to local conditions.

The original garlic was shop-brought, lovely and fresh from an

Indian supermarket. Maybe I've just struck lucky, but I've saved myself

a small fortune by ignoring  the traditional advise to buy in

special (specially expensive!) garlic bulbs each year.

Garlic and shallots need to go into the ground to overwinter and I normally take the shortest day as my cue, which is convenient as it always falls in the school holidays when I've got time to get jobs done.
Some people like to get them in the ground even earlier than this, but I am very happy with the results I've had with my dates. In fact, with the ridiculously warm and wet winters we're increasingly experiencing, I no longer have a clue when I should be planting them!

But this year the ground in later December was too sodden even to ruffle up the surface enough for a few garlic cloves and shallot sets. No worry, I thought, it can wait till New Year's Day. Little did I bargain for the deluge which early January has brought us. We're lucky in that we are at minimal risk of flooding (even though we live in the low-lying Fens, a robust system of drains and dykes is well-maintained and designed over many years to manage water levels). But our heavy soil is absolutely waterlogged at the moment and any fresh rainfall simply has nowhere to go but to sit on the surface and seep slowly, very slowly into the ground. Ever larger and more permanent puddles are appearing.

Yesterday, however, I did at least manage to turn over some of the soil. I trod on boards so as not to compact it any further and I'd added a layer of semi-decomposed compost a couple of weeks back and let the worms and the chickens do their magic on it.
The result was not too bad. All I need now is next week's forecast of frosty weather and, if the ground is frozen early in the morning I can get the rotavator onto it, at least until the winter sun warms it up to cloggy again. If temperatures stay below zero through the day, I can rotavate until my hands get too cold to continue.

Meanwhile, the garlic hung up in the kitchen is just starting to sprout, so it's time to either puree it ready for the freezer or dehydrate it. One braid has gone off with a friend to be smoked.

I've just been searching for the post with the photo of that Indian supermarket and drawn a blank, but I did find this corresponding post from 2014. 2014 garlic planting
The date was a few days earlier and the soil was a bit more crumbly,  but I love the way these things come round year on year. That was the first year I planted these cloves purchased from Pretty Fruiterers, that little grocers in North London. I also planted some cloves saved from specially purchased garlic - I think it was Garlic Marco. But for the second time that failed to produce well.
Funny how the expensive garlic purchased specially for growing and costing about £2 per bulb doesn't seem to save from year to year isn't it!
I think I purchased a whole bag full of my garlic for that much. It grows better, gives much plumper cloves, is whiter and more disease resistant.

small print
all the horticultural suppliers and references say that if you just use purchased supermarket garlic it won't be disease resistant and you are laying yourself open to importing nasty things like white rot, which stays in the soil for an awfully long time and stops you growing any of the onion family in that piece of soil. So if you decide to try what I've done, on your head be it! Maybe try them in a very small piece of soil which you could easily avoid growing onions on in the future if need be... and keep a close eye on them for disease.