Winter has arrived although I have yet to see any snow the overnight temperature is plunging below zero. Decided it would be prudent to cover some of my globe artichokes with fleece and the rest with straw. The plants are still young and hopefully I should pick my first ever homegrown globes later this year.
Meanwhile my garlic is doing well and actually needs some cold weather to encourage it to form bulbs. This is my first successful attempt at growing garlic, my earlier effort last Spring was a total disaster with not a single one appearing. I now realise that I planted them too deep in a heavy soil. This time I chose a bed with a lighter soil and planted more shallower.
There is a video on YouTube that shows you: How to plant garlic video
The break in my blogging was due to experiencing the worst growing season I have known. I will admit my experience is limited but even so the weather statistics for this year's summer in the UK tell a sorry story. I pretty well gave up on my plot and so did most of my vegetables. It pretty well was a write off leaving me with little to write about.
The only semblance of success came from my runner beans and mangetout although this was the first time I had grown both. Even though I had nothing to judge them against I was pleased and surprised by the crop. It certainly gave me enough of a lift to start clearing the beds in September.
Looking for some inspiration and advice I watched this video by Alys Fowler on Winter Gardening and discovered "Hard-necked garlic" that although it has a shorter storage life than "soft-necked" is regarded as being superior for cooking. Alys explains more starting a 6 mins 20 secs in should you want to skip the rest.
So I ordered some "Lautrec Wight" garlic described as the king of garlic for the kitchen that I will be planting out in the next week. This will mark the start of a new gardening year for me with my fingers crossed that next year's weather will be better.
