Garlic & Onion Sets Planted

Last weekend I took the opportunity to get out onto the balcony and started planting the over wintering Garlic and Onion Sets. First I did a little tidying up, mainly getting rid of all the Aubergine plants, which I've given up on, I ended up with a lot of flowers, but no Aubergines themselves. I also potted up the Serrano Chili plant and the Pepper (Sweet) plant that I had in the large tub hanging over the balcony, so once it gets a bit colder I can take these indoors.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: Oct 2011

This left me with five tubs I could plant into, two tubs hanging over the balcony and three large pots on the balcony floor. I gave the soil in each of the pots a good mix around to loosen it up. I then flattened the soil down to make sure it was tight and compressed and then I used my new Dibber to create shallow drills to place the Early Purple Wright Garlic and Radar Onion Sets in the soil, covering each of them so that their necks are just popping out from the soil, and with a 10cm gap between each bulb.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: Oct 2011

In total I have planted two tubs of Garlic and three tubs of Onion Sets, all the Garlic was used up, but I still have a few Onion Sets left over. As a little added protection for the bulbs which are in the tubs hanging over the balcony, I've placed several canes into the soil and stretched some of the netting I used to protect the Strawberries over the top of the tubs, just as a deterrent to stop the birds from picking at them. I then gave them all a good watering and now I just have to wait.