A perfect day....so I planted my onion sets!

What a perfect September day! A dewy chilly start, then gorgeous sunshine. It is a little windy here today, but as the wind is from the NE we can hear the sea. The beach nearest to us is shingle and I can hear the waves pounding and then running back, pounding and then running back.....!

I bought my onion and shallot sets yesterday and thought that there is no time like the present for getting on with sowing them so .....

Firstly I dug the bed really deeply as advised on the planting notes sheet that I got with the garlic bulbs from our island Garlic Farm (variety Solent Wight). They also advise lime, so I did that too. (I have had white rot on my onions at the plot, which is why I am putting these in the Kitchen Garden instead of the plot. Lime is advised in order to help deter white rot.) (The leaflet also suggested treating the area with Jeyes Fluid as some have found that helpful against white rot, but I read the blurb on the JF tin and it advised leaving 6 weeks between treatment and planting....so I might do that next year....if I remember!)

I also gave it a healthy dose of manure pellets, and topped the lot off with all the sifted compost that was in the black dustbin. Then to make best use of the bed I have set them out at the required distances and taken the picture for later reference.

Nearest the camera are the Solent Wight garlic. The inner bubs from the corm are spaces 4" apart, and the fatter outer bulbs are 6 inches apart. It was advised to put them in rows 18" apart.....but as this is a deep bed I can space closer so they are about a foot apart.

The middle of the bed is Onion "Senshyu Yellow" (Taylors £1.49 for 50 sets). I have never grown this variety before and I hope it will be tasty. These are 5 inches apart.

The far end of the bed is Shallot "Jermor". The pack was for 10 sets (£2.49), but actually contained 14, although 4 of them were smaller than the others.

After taking the picture I went along with the trowel and inserted them into the lovely loose soil an inch down. I am now going to net them to stop the cats digging them up.