It is that time of year again, where I look at overwintering allieums. That’s garlic, onions and shallots. This year, there are no over wintering onions and shallots. These crops are simply not successful enough for me. With the heavy clay, tendency to flood, these tend to be written off. However, garlic is something of a staple. It grows well, and is always used. It is sad, when we run out of home made garlic.

This year, I have taken the decision to plant garlic into raised beds. Mainly as I have more success in raised beds, in comparison to the ones in open ground. This is across varieties, and I have sown many different varieties over the years. This year, I have gone with provence wight as it has performed the best when planted previously. At this stage, I have planted about four bulbs worth. This has filled one raised bed of 2m x 1. Far fewer than I haver planted, which is a little sad. I am looking into perhaps sinking more, being more scrooge like. Plus, mama H will bend my ear about how much room I am going to dedicate to garlic. Thing is, I can sow it around the edges of raised beds, and then plant things in the middle.The allotment wouldn’t be the same without garlic being planted.