by Max Akroyd

A combination of fierce weather and insomnia shoved gardening into a remote corner of today. Although the latter meant I was around to see the early morning mists clear the valley:

By the time I was ready for action the weather had stopped being stroppy and was just a bit boisterous. I got one hundred and fifty shallots (Griselle) into the ground and some of the huge garlic (Messidor) sowing done too. I’m determined to have great crops of both these alliums this year… Much better in every respect than fussy old onions, they’re possibly the best vegetables going, not least because they divide giving generously and abundantly after the initial outlay. They taste great too.

I have a fiendish plan to create a Master Race of each – so any seed that wasn’t big enough was mercilessly discarded – and the rest will be generously weeded and fed seaweed solution and generally pampered until they dwarf the stuff available from catalogues mwah hah hah. (There’s probably a posse of mice eating the sets as I type).