Are shallots root vegetables?
It’s a good time to buy seeds now if you haven’t done
already. It’s a job I put off until the last minute because up here in
Inishowen we don’t need to follow the sowing instructions too closely. We seem
about a month behind most of the country with plant growth.
Another reason I delay is the knock on effect that buying
seeds has. It’s easy enough buying the seeds, but they germinate and get really
big really quickly so that entails getting the ground ready to plant out. The
seeds have now been sown in cells in the polytunnel so I have only a few weeks
to get everything sorted. The pressure!
It won’t take too long though and if I wait until the ground is drier
later this month I won’t drag half the soil into the house in muddy clumps on
my boots.
Edibles
We’re being really minimalist with our edibles choice this
year, so much so we didn’t need to order from online growers, we just went to
our local DIY centre. Broccoli seeds have been planted of course, that’s a
staple in our house, and we also have beans, courgettes, chard, lettuce,
rocket, mange tout and broad beans all put out to germinate.
As usual there are no root vegetables on the growing list- or
peas this year. We do get one flush of pods but I can never get to grips with
the successive sowing malarkey. Every year try and every year the plants all
produce at the same time. They always seem to catch up with one another so I’m
not bothering. I prefer frozen peas anyway (although I’d never confess to that
in public)
If you have planted anything out, edible or ornamental it’s
a good idea to keep on top of the weeds. Just a few minutes getting rid of the
young growth will save you hours later in the season. Get the hoe out on a dry
day and then you can just leave the plant tops to die off in the sun. Tap roots
will still need to be prized out of the ground though.
Cat Plant Update
Some of the cat plants are proving to be very popular. I had
a lot of catnip plug seedlings for sale and they all got snapped up by feline
lovers around the country. I haven’t sold one catgrass plug still though so
they will be going on the compost heap before the self-seed everywhere. There
are no psychoactive chemicals in the grass as there is in the Nip, so the cats
just aren’t going crazy for it.
Irish Moss in decline
My other good seller in small plugs is Irish Moss (Sagina
Subulata). These make great groundcover and bear tiny white flowers in summer.
I didn’t know this until now though that this plant is
actually on the decline in Ireland restricting itself to a few bare rocky areas
of heathy sea cliffs. So much so that if you happen to spot them in the north
we are asked to report any sightings to CEDaR, National Museums Northern
Ireland.
You wouldn’t think that was the case in my garden though as
it seems to self-set everywhere and is moving itself up the exhaustive “Weed List”
just below bittercress and chickweed.
The only recent sighting records of them in the wild are
from the sea cliffs around Ballycastle, but I’ll bet we can find some hidden
away around the peninsula of we look hard enough.
It’s good to know I’m doing something responsible helping
the plant to survive. The cause for the rapid decline hasn’t been assessed yet
but as they produce thousands of seeds per plant, with a bit of careful
cultivation and planting I’m sure we’ll keep Irish Moss on the hillsides (or in
our gardens anyway)
Butt out
If you have a water butt I’d recommend getting it cleaned
out before summer. If it’s emptied now it can get refilled with fresh rainwater
as there is no shortage of it at the moment. I did mine last week as it was
getting a bit smelly.
Correction – or is
it?
I’ve just been reminded we have a fish box full of shallots
this year and to some these are seen as ‘root vegetables’. Are onions root
vegetables though? Bulbs are modified stems with roots attached which we don’t
eat. I’m not convinced they are root vegetables. What do you think?
