Planting onion and garlic sets.

On our most recent volunteer day, Thursday 7th October, a small group of volunteers prepared a bed and planted autumn sets of onions and garlic. Autumn sets spend winter in the ground, giving them a head start for earlier ripening at the end of the following spring. We planted "radar" onions and "flavor" garlic, both from the Garden Organic catalogue.

Sally and Rowan putting onion sets in the ground.

Planting was the easy part - hard work came first, digging the bed over and taking out all the dock roots (hopefully!). The weeds had been cut three weeks earlier, and old roofing felt from the chicken sheds had been laid over the soil to deprive the weeds and seeds of light. After planting the sets, the bed was surrounded by chicken wire to keep rabbits out, and covered with netting to keep birds away. Now it looks like Fort Knox. Even so, some onion sets have been dug up and nibbled - our bet is by mice. Any ideas or suggestions?

The bed ready for planting, with experimental roofing-felt mulching behind.