A half day holiday

Well today I did the unthinkable (for a workaholic anyway)...I took a half day holiday...okay, so by the time I prised myself away it was more like a third of a day, but lets not split hairs ;0).

So what did I do with this precious time off...I went up to the lottie of course! Even though it was threatening to rain.

It was pretty cold and grey up there today, but it was an important visit.

The shallots and onions have been in for a few weeks now and the local bird population just love pulling sets up, So I wanted to make sure they were all just as I'd left them.

I only found the odd one or two completely pulled up, several were planted, but the whole set exposed (I imagine the heavy rain we've had recently had washed the soil away). No problem, I just replanted the uprooted ones and pulled some soil round the exposed ones.

I did have quite a few gaps in the onions and shallot beds, and I was concerned that I'd lost 20 or so sets, however, just a gentle bit of furtling in the soil revealed the sets had just got covered up! Phew! 

 The sets have made good top growth already, so hopefully I'll get a nice crop.

I'm also planning to grow some Ailsa Craig and Long Red onions from seed this year, but that will have to be my day-after-Boxing Day treat. Hopefully they'll be good enough to show...perhaps I'd better revisit vegmandan's Show Veg website (see my list of links) so I give them the best start possible.

I did a little light weeding while I was there too. Onions and Shallots really don't like to compete with weeds, so its important to keep on top of this task.

 At last my leeks seem to be making a little progress...not much, but they are starting to fatten up a little bit. The thickest one is probably the same as my index finger. Something tells me these little blighters will be in the ground until April/May next year.

I pulled one beetroot which was big enough to cook, and when I got home I popped into the garden and pulled a handful of these lovely multicoloured carrots to go with it. The carrots are quite dinky, I sowed them in a flowerpot by the back door quite late in the season, as a last ditch effort to get some carrots this year, as all other attempts had failed miserably. And I also picked the last couple of bunches of grapes from our vines. Now the frost has got to them, they are incredibly sweet and juicy - yum!!

And finally for today...Look! A Figlet!! We were given a little pot-grown Fig tree by MrPB's brother. I say little, its probably four or five foot tall. Back in the summer we planted it into one of our raised beds in the back garden, and it seemed really happy, and here it is with fruit on! I think I might just have to fleece it to improve our chances of keeping it.