Clearing Tomatoes and harvesting Onions, Garlic, Shallots and Parsnips

So I finally got outside to do some weeding, and tidy up the wreckage of the inside tomato plants (which had been blown to all corners since I moved them outside, and hadn't recovered at all, sadly).

This morning, in a fit of energy, I got out of bed and went straight into the garden. I have recovered the bamboo stakes and the little green plastic bits from the tomato plants, and then separated the soil from the plants.

 Soil from the inside tomato plants

The dead inside-tomato plants

Anyone got any ideas what I can do with the soil? I was just going to spread it onto waste ground... I presume that with all the roots in it there is a chance that next year some random tomato plants may appear?

Anyway, that done, I headed for my Parsnip Patch to weed, and pull a couple of plants to see how well they are doing.  The weeds were pretty bad, but it didn't take long to pull them back. No gloves, pulling stinging nettles out, and very very few stings... I think it is true that if you grasp a nettle hard, you don't get stung - it is when you brush past them that it hurts the most.

My weeded Parsnip Patch

A single Parnsip, looking very healthy.

While I was walking across the grass one time I spotted this little fella hopping away from me.

 This tomato plant was a runt which I just pushed into the ground and didn't even think about. It has a really good crop of tomatoes and is hugely healthy. So there you are :)

The most ripe tomatoes are still getting redder, which is nice.

This is the fruit of my harvest today. The (tiny) parsnips are to the left, next are all the garlic that I saved, then a mix of onions and shallots.

I think I left my onions and shallots in the ground too long because a good half were soft and rotted. This despite the above ground growth not having died down yet. I think this is because of the wetness of the year, which is a shame, but it is all a learning experience.

I actually harvested all the root crops completely by hand, without using any digging implements. I just dug my bare hands into the soil and filtered out the crop. This was a very satisfying (if dirty) method. I recommend it highly.

This evening I am planning on a lamb roast with cabbage from the garden, and I may fry those parsnips up too. I will blog about it.

Cheers

A general status update

Once again I have been out in the garden today, it being the first day there's been any sun at all.

I cut the grass, took the little greenhouse things down for the year (they will probably next be used when I leave the country!) and cleared around generally.

So, without any further ado, here is my update.

The main potato bed. I have not harvested any yet. This looks like a massive failure to be fair. I will try and dig these out tomorrow and photograph it if possible.

The potatoes in the tyres are possibly slightly better, I'll be getting them out tomorrow too if possible.

Some rotten Shallots. These pulled out by accident and they look like they're rotting in the ground slightly; probably not that surprising considering how much rain we've had.

The Stuttgarter Giant Onions are still looking healthy though.

Sweetcorn growing well! I've been meaning to take photographs of this for a while. This is looking pretty good I'd have said.

Cabbage patch :) Some of these are improving quite well, some have been eaten completely by slugs

The apples on the little apple tree are amazing now. A couple have been lost to dropping off, but I am going to be picking and eating these over the next week or so.

The second batch of lettuce, coming through very well indeed. I can't wait to eat these.

I MAY have another blog later as I had plans to have Fajitas tonight with my beautiful lady, using onions, chillis and lettuce grown by myself, but the electrics in my kitchen have blown so we may have to put that off for another time.  I really hope the sparky can come and fix it today so we can do this though!

Anyway, enjoy, I'll be back soon (I have SO many chillis on their way, but no more tomatoes, in case you were wondering.)

Pulling Onions - harvest time

Something took me out into the garden today... As I've observed I have been pretty lax recently in focusing on it as I should for various reasons.  It's actually quite depressing when you realised you've let it slide; I hope this is a kick up the backside that I need to get back into it.

Anyway, MASSIVELY overgrown grass not-with-standing, the garden has done OK without me; the potatoes are pretty ruined (as most people's are) and I seriously doubt I will be getting any yield from them at all, but as has been observed all along, the Onions and Shallots have gone great guns.

So, in a sudden fit of energy, I pulled my fork out of the (cobweb-locked) shed and decided to pull up the Karmen Red Onions.

The bed with the onions ready for pulling

These onions have died off, without any green stem left; I am reliably informed this means they are ready for pulling.

I have inserted the fork underneath the root system and lifted carefully. This was very easy and there was very little resistance.

My make-shift collection device with all the Red onions dug out.

On first inspection there is only one onion damaged; it appears to have been eaten by some insect or slug.

The empty bed, ready for something else (probably the peppers that are in pots currently.

Stuttgarter Giant Onions; these are still quite green so I am only going to dig a couple up, and will keep an eye and pull them when the green dies down more.

They're not very "Giant" are they!

Red Sun Shallots, again probably not QUITE ready in the main. I dug the one top right in the picture.

There is a clump of shallots, I'm quite pleased by this as one shallot has turned into 5 - an obvious and rewarding return on planting the damn things.

My harvest; these are now out in the sun drying though I am sorely tempted to make something with them this weekend.

So there you are, another harvest from the garden; not epic but it proves the point. With bigger beds and an organised planting schedule it would be quite easy to provide all your onion needs from quite a small area.

It is important to remember, however, that onions should be planted in a strict rotation policy as diseases and parasites will build up from one year to the next in soil.  There may be some good tricks (digging in well rotted compost) to renew the soil but everything I have seen says to definitely move your onions around your plot and don't return for at least 4 years.

A basic status update

So today is just a simple current state of affairs of everything that I am growing. I have just taken these following a quick half hour blast of weeding around the garden over my lunch break. Someone today said that gardening takes away my anger; I think that is a very accurate description of the calming effect just grubbing around and taking little weeds out of the soil with your bare hands. Epic relaxation.

Stuttgarter Giant Onions

Karmen Red Onions

Red Sun Shallots

Casablanca Garlic

Parsnips (oh yeah!!)

Parnsips close up :) definitely coming through well now they are under plastic

Carrots (another ooohhhh yeahhh!!)

Carrots close up :)

Cabbage seedlings through the netting

Main bed potatoes

Old tyre potatoes (due for another tyre now I think)

(left to right) parsley, chives, corriander.

Chillis

Sweetcorn

Tomatoes

Peppers

The only two plants not showing any green yet is the mint (which is a major surprise) and the spring onions.

This weekend I am going to be splitting the tomato plants out into separate pots ready for offering around to people.  A hint provided me by @Fat_Jacques "put marigolds among tomatoes, [it] helps tomatoes with aphids and other pests."

As always, I am really keen for any advice like this, as a first time gardener, so please do not hesitate to provide advice on the comments here, or through my twitter account (@rhmgroo)

I have some plant pots (and a progress update)

I have been freecycling (as I think I've mentioned before) and today I made my second collection of plant pots from the nice lady in central Blackpool.

I now have a nice collection of plant pots ready for filling up and putting my Tomato Plants in.

Well when I say a "nice" collection:

I had to wash each one of those; I got SOAKED to the skin; good thing the sun has come back :)

So I'm going to be filling each of these up with soil and planting tomato plants in them; I will be taking requests from people for tomato plants via this site so please keep an eye on it. When I know how many I have to give away I'll put a blog post for y'all to say how many you want.

Anyway, the rest of the garden is going pretty well; the ONLY things not growing are the parnsips, carrots and mint (though I'm hopeful they will start in the next couple of weeks - I really did expect the parsnips and carrots to have started to show green by now) but everything else looking great so, without any further ado, status photographs below:

Chillis: not as good as Jon's at work are (apparently, though he's refused to take any pictures to prove how impressive his are) but they're still alive and growing, though slowly.

Blossom has all gone from the Apple tree, but it is looking very healthy and happy :)

The Stuttgarter Giant Onions; nicely weeded today

The Karmen Red Onions, again nicely weeded

The Red Sun Shallots. These are looking so bountiful :)

The Casablanca Garlic. I'm starting to consider how I'll know when to harvest these things :)

Just showing; the cabbage :) this is very exciting for me indeed!

The potatoes in the main bed; I've lots count now of the number of plants that are growing.

Potatoes in the old tyres. These are growing great guns, since I put the second tyre on they have accelerated dramatically.

The herb garden; in all seriousness if anyone wants some Parsley (who lives near Blackpool) just ask and you can come get some :)

The Sweetcorn is coming on really well; only 2 days after the first green started showing they are already a good inch and a half long.

The tomatoes. I have SO many of these coming on!!! I've been taking daily photographs of their progress and will post a seven day progress blog tomorrow.

So, there you have it. Things is growing and growing well.