Category Archives: Uncategorised

When to plant garlic

purple garlic

When to plant garlic, the short answer is anytime from mid September to the end of November. However it’s easier to plant anything if the soil is not frozen so the earlier the better. Traditionally garlic was planted on the 31st of October and harvested on the 31st of July but this is only a guide and you will see when the garlic needs lifting as the leaves will yellow and die back. Garlic needs ten days of frost to form cloves so don’t worry if it snows or we have a particularly bad winter as this is actually helping… → Read More

Lesson learnt about Carrot fly

Just went up to my allotment to pull a few carrots for tea and I was quite happy with the size and colour and was looking forward to eating them later. On closer inspection one has been attacked by the dreaded carrot fly. Well that’s not strictly true, as it’s not the carrot fly that attacks carrots but the grub of the carrot fly. The adult carrot fly lays its eggs in the soil adjacent to the growing carrots. As the grub develops it burrows into the carrot leaving the scarring and tunnelling you can see in the image below…. → Read More

How deep to sow seeds

seedlings

The short answer to this is roughly twice as deep as they are thick, but as most seeds come in a seed packet they will usually come with instructions on the packet. This is an interesting question though as more often than not self seeded plants that don’t grow in the allocated place for them seem to grow better than their looked after, watered, planted at the right time and nurtured counter parts. At the time of writing this I have just noticed that the broad beans that I planted two weeks ago to over winter are poking through the soil… → Read More