Slow painting

Sunday 28 February 2010

Beginning, middle and end


The first spears of the autumn-planted garlic mark the beginning of the allotment year for me. The autumn variety needs frost to get going, so I'm hoping for a bumper crop from this frosty winter.

In the middle are the autumn-planted Japanese onions, standing like troopers through all the frost and snow. I think I'm meant to be feeding them around now to kick start further growth, but I have no allotment time for the next couple of weeks. Let's hope they realise they're in Scotland and still have a bit of the winter left.


And coming to an end are the Red Duke of York potatoes which we didn't have time to lift in the autumn, and have taken a chance with leaving in the ground. Amazingly they're mostly unaffected by the frost, with only one bad tuber in every three or so shaws, and a good yield all round.


Right at the end, in terms of having had it, is the red clover sown in the summer as green manure. Time to dig it in now. It's suppressed the weeds beautifully, and I'll use it again in preference to field beans which allowed weed growth and were then a pain to dig in.

12 comments:

Peggy said...

It is great to see new growth for the new season beginning!I am amazed at the potatoes lasting in the ground over this winter especially!We have sunny days and frosty nights so nothing is going outdoors for a while yet.

donna said...

The simplicity of the garlic photo is very nice.

I don't know a thing about growing potatoes, but I'm amazed at how perfect they look and their red color against the black dirt makes for a great picture.

We're still covered in snow, but I'm sure there's some action going on under there. I saw a chipmunk across the snow today.

Have a happy March, Linda.

donna

L. D. said...

Those are good looking potatoes. They store good underground as long as you didn't get a deep freeze.

Jo said...

It's nice to see that you're still digging things up as new things are starting to sprout. My allotment is completely empty now, so I want to ensure that I have more things planted for over winter this year.

... said...

It's so nice to see new growth after a long winter, and the potatoes are really looking great .

My garden is still covered with deep snow, and it seems like winter will never end. I really long for spring and a new gardening season.

Have a nice week :)

Jacqui said...

Looking good there. It's amazing what did make it through this year. My garlic is shooting up nicely now too. Did you go for the really garlicky ones after all?
Those pink tatties look really bright and fresh.

Rafael said...

Bonjour, le jardinage démarre tôt en Ecosse! Ici je ne peux pas encore planter mes patates, le sol est trop humide et il fera encore froid ce weekend, le sol ne séchera pas :( Vite le printemps !

Kissapelakuu said...

Thank You visited my page!
Summer is coming byt slowly.
There is lots of snow everywhere and very freezing nights.
So beautifull red potatoes!

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Hi Linda,
My husband works at the same school I do. My boss used to live in Nova Scotia. This evening, he told me how he told him he lives in one of the places he wants to visit sometime. The other place is Scotland. I told him I got a comment from my friend in Scotland today.

He asked if I had told you he wants to visit Scotland. I said I couldn't remember and pointed out that I've not been spending much time on the computer because of all the work I've been doing getting ready for the kitchen remodel. I have gotten quite behind in my blog reading, and get excited when I hear from someone I haven't talked to for awhile.

Your potatoes sure are pretty. I didn't get any garlic replanted in the fall, but I always seem to have more plants coming up from previous years' garlic.

I hope you get to the allotment soon.

Gunilla said...

Hi Linda.
Did you have the potatoes in the ground over the winter?
Amazing.
We have alot of snow left but it´s melting now during the day´s.

Have a nice weekend.

Gunilla

donna said...

Linda, I'm missing news of you and the allotment. Hope everything is okay. Just wanted you to know you're missed.

donna

The Allotment Blogger said...

Wow, I've never overwintered potatoes in the ground - that's impressive. Your garlic is handsome too - we only planted ours this weekend (gulp) having totally failed to get our autumn planting organised yet again!