Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

No matter what the weather (and yes we are back to heavy rain and strong winds) it is always dry in the polytunnel!! And so to finally getting the autumn onions and garlic planted. We prepared the beds some time ago: bringing in several wheelbarrows full of 'muck' from our own compost heaps! As the first photo shows the compost is a beautiful dark, rich colour and hopefully full of lots of nutrients to help these vegetables really grow well.
First in (second photo) was the Elephant Garlic. The individual cloves (from which whole new bulbs will grow) are as big as a normal size garlic bulb but then Elephant Garlic is not as strong as regular garlic so you can use plenty of it in your cooking.
The onions went in next: notice David's measuring stick with black marks to show where to plant each set (a small immature onion). This ensures each plant is the recommended distance from the previous one: too close and the plants won't have enough space to grow as big as they should, too far apart and we 'waste' valuable growing space.
And in answer to the question: why do we plant in straight rows? The very simple answer is that it makes weeding between the developing bulbs much easier! Here's hoping the mice don't get in and dig them all up mind you!
And in the rest of the beds in the polytunnel, it is still the land of plenty as these rather crowded carrots are demonstrating!!!!