
The Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Read moreThe Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Read moreRhubarb & custard cocktail
An elegant vodka-based drink that'll wow your guests - it's made with creamy advocaat iqueur and homemade fruit syrup
The Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Garlic is largely pest and disease free, but sometimes ‘rust’, a fungal disease of the foliage, can be damaging. If this happens, then grow garlic in a different part of the garden in future years and destroy all of the infected leaves. White rot disease is present in some soils and attacks the roots. If this happens grow garlic in tubs of soil-based potting media, such as John Innes No3 compost
This fungus causes the leaves to wilt and turn yellow. Under wet conditions, the plants may not wilt but will become loose in the soil. If you lift them, you will see a white fluffy growth on the bulbs.
Remedy: Throw out any infected bulbs, and don’t grow leeks, onions or garlic in that spot again for at least eight years. This is a very persistent fungus that survives in the soil for a long time. There is no chemical control.
This is a fungal disease causing bright yellow spots on the leaves. It is often worse in long, wet spells.
Remedy: Mild attacks of rust won’t affect the plant, but serious infections may cause leaves to shrivel and affect yield. There is no control for rust once you have the infection. Make sure you don’t crowd plants as this increases both humidity and the likelihood of infection. Dispose of any badly affected plant material, and don’t grow garlic, leeks or onions in the same spot for three years.
Click Here for more information on leek rust
Growing Garlic: Flower Stalks
Hardneck garlic cultivars readily produce flower stalks. The developing flowers should be removed as soon as they appear and can be used for stir fries. Softneck cultivars occasionally produce flower stalk if exposed to adverse growing conditions such as high temperatures or drought.
These can be a problem, pulling the shallow-rooting plants out of the ground.
Remedy: Place chicken wire, fleece or plastic netting over plants to keep the birds off. They are usually not such a problem when the plants are older and growing strongly.
Two leaf mining pests that can cause damage to the foliage of garlic and other members of the Allium family are the allium leaf-mining fly and leek moth.
Perfect Roast Potatoes
My foolproof way of getting that perfect roastie!
October is the month when it feels like the season is about to turn, the days start to shorten and the sun appears lower in the sky, the leaves change colour and fall to the ground and temperatures drop. The first frost are likely too, which will be the end of many of your crops out in the open so if you still haven’t harvested frost sensitive crops now is the time before Jack Frost gets them!
August is the month of plenty, virtually everything you planted and sown will be giving you a crop, daily trips to the plot are recommended this month, harvesting, watering, and weeding all needing doing this month!
We get a glimpse of the early signs of the arrival of Spring this month. The soil begins to warm up around the middle of February and we can see for the first time this year the buds beginning to swell on fruit trees and bushes. Overwintering vegetables begin to look less sorry for themselves and they start to produce new growth.