Flipping Market Farm Beds - Onions, Garlic and Salad

It’s become incredibly busy on the farm, especially in the market garden. As the 2021 season wanes, beds need stripping of their plants and refreshing with compost for next year. Corms, like the glads, need lifting, dividing and drying. The frost hasn’t hit yet either, so there are still a few flowers (mostly dahlias and straw flowers) that are blooming and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they’ll last until the next market in November.

We’re yet to have a frost so the dahlias continue to flower.

On the veggie side of things it’s a similar story. The polytunnel tomatoes have gone over and so I’ve spent the week cutting them off at the base, mulching the greens onto the compost and transplanting fresh, young lettuces. I’m not growing winter specific varieties but a common salad bowl variety. I’m hoping that these will survive the cold season with the help of being inside the polytunnel, and grow into lettuce heads. I can then cut these for the next farmers market and continue to offer freshly harvested greens on the honesty stall throughout the long winter.

Outside it’s another story. Not a lot will survive, especially if we have snow similar to last year. A few crops, such as chard and kale, will almost certainly sit in the ground but they won’t grow until the warmer weather arrives next year. However, one thing I’ve realised in harvesting for the honesty stand and market is that I desperately need to grow something that last longer after harvest. It’s fine loading up the stall with fresh greens, radishes, carrots etc, but unless you sell them within a few days, their shelf life is done. But things like garlic and onions? Well you can harvest and dry them and they’ll sit in storage for months, allowing you to trot them out week after week.

Laying out beds for garlic. I use sticks on newly transplanted cloves to prevent the birds pulling them out.

This week I’ve been extending the market garden beds which involves laying out cardboard and covering with mushroom compost. I’ve then planted about 900 garlic cloves which will produce a few roots and shoots now, but won’t truly bulb up until spring next year. They’ll then be perfect for lifting, drying and selling. I’ve currently run out of cardboard, but as soon as fill the car with another load, I’ll be making more beds and popping in 1kg of white onion and a 1kg of red onion bulbs.

It’s kind of exciting to still be planting when it’s almost November. It feels like a continuation of the season. There’s something fun about putting crops into the ground now that I’ll be harvesting in 2022 during the first proper market farm season. Year One. The year where things really kick off! I’m hoping I’ll be able to put these garlic and onions into the CSA boxes, as well as offering them at markets and the honesty stall.

There’s still plenty of time to get your crops in. It’s cold enough now that they won’t put on too much growth to get frosted or stunted later. BUT, it’s warm enough for them to bed themselves down into the soil ahead of the proper growing season. So get happy and pop some of next year’s food into the ground!