Red for Go?

OK I have been impulsive.  Finding myself in the locality of a Garden Centre with an hour to kill in mid winter, I  bought some onion sets.

Have some sympathy for me: the label clearly states "Planting time December/May" 

As it was an impulse buy I hadn't checked out the books before buying so was dependant on the information from the vendor. All the books warn against planting onion sets too early.  Guaranteed to bolt so it would seem.  (That's excluding autumn planted Japanese onions) A week later and some of my sets are looking a bit blue and one or two have shrivelled, so to hedge my bets I have planted half of them up in modules to be kept in an unheated greenhouse.  The others I will keep dry indoors for now. I should have heeded the warning:

In Rude Health

Naiade

Just for a bit of winter cheer I have been dusting off my old photos files.  This one from Parc Tete D'Or did make me laugh!

Elusive Butterflies

Fritillary feeding

With imminent snow forecast I am in need of some summer cheer, so today I have collected together some of my butterfly snaps 

A well camouflaged Speckled Wood Butterfly 

The ever popular Red Admiral

A Meadow Brown?

Another Meadow Brown

Peacock giving the eyes

It's white and it has a spot. The dreaded Cabbage White?

More spots yes that's a Cabbage White!

There's only one contender for this post:

Reflections - Spotlight on Brassicas

It is just about the end of the brassicas.  They have been a mixed bunch this last year.  I planted 3 sorts of kale and 2 sorts of broccoli which was fairly adventurous.   Not surprisingly the cabbages ran out rather sooner than I would have hoped. For some years now I have deployed weed suppressant fabric (WSF) on the brassica section although I left a bare strip for those brassicas that hate to be transplanted (turnips , swedes, pak choi, mooli). This has confirmed me in my opinion of the benefit of using WSF.  The weeds grew away happily in the bare strip and as the bird netting is in place it was no joke removing them - a back aching hands and knees balancing act.  

Brassica patch with bare strip to left at planting time

A few weeks on - weeds on the rampage to the left, WSF doing the hard work to the right!

The kale was great with the Dwarf Curled being the star performer for volume and hardiness.  The Cavelo Nero is excellent too but not as hardy.  The purple veined variety lost out although it was a great novelty before it got a bit tough and tasteless.  I did grow some Brussels (Evesham Special) but they were too small to grace the Christmas table. I grew two crops on the bare strip - early cabbages (Greyhound) and Caulis (All The Year Round) and then successional sowings of Turnip Swede, Mooli and Pak Choi.  These sowings either failed or faired poorly for size.  I think I should have fed the soil more before the successional sowing.  Pak Choi just gets wiped out by pests (from flea beetle to slugs) whenever I try to grow it on the allotment. Probably will not try growing it here again. 

  As always I have managed to put the latest crop (purple sprouting broccoli) in the most inconvenient of places - right where I want to plant my new strawberry patch.  The net has been raised, but not before the pigeons had a go at the PSB pecking through it when the snow weighed it down!  All will be forgiven - provided it still comes good.

Bedraggled brassicas PSB nearest

Next year I will have a smaller brassica patch as I am adjusting my rotation.  More over wintering cabbages, less Pak Choi and Mooli, some kale.  Lime in advance and a good feed for any successional sowings. And even the Swedes will be sown through WSF this year!

Look - No Carrots!

I have started clearing up the brassica patch. Here is today's crop.   Those aren't white carrots they are (small) mooli!

I said no carrots - I lied!  Here's One:

January Harvest

Carrots and Jerusalem Artichokes

A quick trip to the plot for a seasonal harvest today.  This will be our first batch of artichoke soup this winter.  We pulled these leeks too:

Someone was very pleased to see a bit of earth turning:

While we were at it we cut back the autumn raspberry canes.  Then the rain came on.