All is green

By James Middleton - Added 7th of August 2008

July was a mixed month - cold, warm, wet and dry. At the beginning of summer I was hoping for a sudden spurt in crop growth, but it was a slow start. Many have blamed the cool nights, some, the inconsistency of the weather.

Still, whatever the cause, the later part of the month offered better weather and now most of my crops have finally caught up. The harsh winds seem to subsided and the marrows, butternut squashes and courgettes are now well established and in fruit and flower. Has any noticed that the bees are back this year? They are currently busy at work pollinating. Well done to them!

For the past 2 weeks, the Middleton's have enjoyed some excellent produce from our allotment plot. We have picked thousands of delicious French beans, running beans and asparagus peas. The lettuces that I planted in May have now gone way passed there best and the potatoes are yielding their tubers for the table.

A few weeks ago, I pulled up to dry 80 huge Japanese onions. Many of them had unfortunately started to bolt and as a result - no good for storage. Not to worry, they will still keep for a few weeks more. I have chopped up and frozen most of them.

Onions for the future!

An onion or two is always at the centre of many a dish. Due to the appalling weather of last year, this year there aren't so many onions around and the prices have risen. Growing onions couldn't be easier. You can either buy 'Sets' from your local garden stockist or grow from seed.

Many people are put of by the thought of growing onions from seed; imagining that they will be fiddly, temperamental and take a long time to grow. Nothing could be further from the truth. I planted a pack of 400 seeds during March, planted the seedling out during May, and now have not far off 400 maturing onions on my plot! They are tough, fast growing and very, very cheap. I bought the pack from a car boot sale last summer for about 20p. That means that every onion costed me .05p (not taking into consideration labour and a little bit of compost). Happy days!

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Credits & Links

Article written by James Middleton - www.theallotmentgarden.co.uk.

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