After a really cold spell the weather has been beautiful and warm this weekend. It's been the first chance to spend more than 10 minutes outside in the garden so far this year. I wasn't expecting to see too much growth after the cold weather but looking more closely I got a few nice surprises. In particular the various different alliums were growing nicely.
I have three rows of soft necked garlic in one of the raised beds and they are all about 10cm high now. I've kept the largest bulbs from last year's growth so hopefully they will be a decent size again this year. They probably kept us stocked up for about 6 months last year.
As well as the ones grown in the beds there are a few places where I've planted garlic around the forest garden and left them to grow as perennials. These have now formed clumps of varying size from just a few stems to 20-30. For the most part I've put these close to the base of the fruit trees. I haven't harvested any of the leaves, but think these could make a good substitute for spring onions at this time of year.
I have three rows of soft necked garlic in one of the raised beds and they are all about 10cm high now. I've kept the largest bulbs from last year's growth so hopefully they will be a decent size again this year. They probably kept us stocked up for about 6 months last year.
As well as the ones grown in the beds there are a few places where I've planted garlic around the forest garden and left them to grow as perennials. These have now formed clumps of varying size from just a few stems to 20-30. For the most part I've put these close to the base of the fruit trees. I haven't harvested any of the leaves, but think these could make a good substitute for spring onions at this time of year.
Garlic growing as a perennial at base of sour cherry tree (25 Feb 2012)
As well as the soft necked garlic I have some hard-necked rocambole planted around the Annie Elizabeth apple. It was slow to grow after planting, but I saw the scapes and bulbils rising up above the undergrowth last year. Now that the growth has died back the young shoots of all four plants are shooting up. I don't know whether there will be a single scape from each clump this year, or multiple ones. I planted some of the bulbils around the garden in autumn so hopefully I'll eventually have a supply of small bulbils to supplement the soft necked garlic.
Rocambole hard necked garlic (25 Feb 2012)
Last year I put in some wild garlic plants in a shady spot next to some rhubarb. They started to come up about a week ago and have grown very quickly. I don't think I will harvest any this year but plan to split them into two or three clumps once they have died back.
Wild garlic - Allium ursinum (25 Feb 2012)
A couple of years ago I planted some bulbils of Babington's leek (Allium babingtonii), a large allium that grows by the coast in South West England. It is supposed to grow to sizes of 1.0-1.5m. I didn't see any sign of them last year and had just about given up hope but several of them have now appeared where I planted them around the Court of Wick apple.
Babington's leek (25 Feb 2012)
They aren't full size yet, but they look like they could be harvested around now. Martin Crawford's book says they will probably regrow if cut off at the base - I might have to give it a try. They would definitely make a welcome harvest at this time of year.
Group of Babington's leek around Court of Wick apple (25 Feb 2012)
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