Back in March you can see from my previous blog, how I created a marrow bed in the kitchen garden, using traditional methods. This year has been an exceptional year for pumpkins and marrows. They had a good start in the sunshine earlier in the year and have been helped by the wet weather later on – which all helps them put on weight.
This photograph shows me with our largest pumpkin and one of the marrows. The pumpkin is from a variety called ‘Hundredweight’ and it takes two of us to lift it!! We’ve got even heavier marrows than the one you can see here. We’ll probably harvest the pumpkin mid October – it’ll be used in a fabulous display during our ‘Get Squashed’ week (Saturday 23rd to Sunday 31st October). We show all the pumpkins, marrows, squashes and gourds – which have been specially grown for showing not eating!
The other photo you can see is me tying up onions, just how it used to be done. The onions were sown in March, planted out end of April/beginning of May; then they were lifted at the beginning of August. They were left to dry out in one of the large polytunnels for a few weeks. This year has been a great year for growing onions here – due to the hot weather at the beginning of the year which meant that they’ve grown quicker earlier on and we lifted them early enough so they didn’t suffer from the wet weather (onions like it to be drier – in case they rot). The varieties of onions in the picture are ‘Bedford Champion’ and ‘Ailsa Craig’. We’ve also grown a red onion called ‘Red Brunswick’ which has also done really well and a showing onion called ‘Mammoth Giant’ which is about 15cm diameter now!
We string them in a traditional way; starting from a strong piece of string/or rope a metre length, then you tie a loop in the bottom with a hangman’s knot then you get three onions together and put the tops of the onions through the loop and pull the knot down. This is the most important part of the process. You then add an onion at a time, working round in a circle, looping the top of the onion round about three times, working your way up until you’ve got as many onions on it as you want. As you can see in my picture, I have about 60 onions, but you don’t need to do that many. It took two of us to lift this bunch (carefully!). The idea of bunching the onions is for the air to flow freely around them so they dry out properly. This is to prevent them from rotting or any disease getting to them. You can then take one off as you need it. These should last you throughout the winter.
This photograph shows me with our largest pumpkin and one of the marrows. The pumpkin is from a variety called ‘Hundredweight’ and it takes two of us to lift it!! We’ve got even heavier marrows than the one you can see here. We’ll probably harvest the pumpkin mid October – it’ll be used in a fabulous display during our ‘Get Squashed’ week (Saturday 23rd to Sunday 31st October). We show all the pumpkins, marrows, squashes and gourds – which have been specially grown for showing not eating!
The other photo you can see is me tying up onions, just how it used to be done. The onions were sown in March, planted out end of April/beginning of May; then they were lifted at the beginning of August. They were left to dry out in one of the large polytunnels for a few weeks. This year has been a great year for growing onions here – due to the hot weather at the beginning of the year which meant that they’ve grown quicker earlier on and we lifted them early enough so they didn’t suffer from the wet weather (onions like it to be drier – in case they rot). The varieties of onions in the picture are ‘Bedford Champion’ and ‘Ailsa Craig’. We’ve also grown a red onion called ‘Red Brunswick’ which has also done really well and a showing onion called ‘Mammoth Giant’ which is about 15cm diameter now!
We string them in a traditional way; starting from a strong piece of string/or rope a metre length, then you tie a loop in the bottom with a hangman’s knot then you get three onions together and put the tops of the onions through the loop and pull the knot down. This is the most important part of the process. You then add an onion at a time, working round in a circle, looping the top of the onion round about three times, working your way up until you’ve got as many onions on it as you want. As you can see in my picture, I have about 60 onions, but you don’t need to do that many. It took two of us to lift this bunch (carefully!). The idea of bunching the onions is for the air to flow freely around them so they dry out properly. This is to prevent them from rotting or any disease getting to them. You can then take one off as you need it. These should last you throughout the winter.
Simon Kellett
Craftsman Gardener
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