We decided to put down some onion sets and garlic to overwinter in a new no-dig bed. We set up the bed at a remove from the other temporary beds so it doesn’t get in the way when we get our polytunnel set up later this winter.

The area of grass we set up the new bed on was rife with creeping buttercup and couch grass, but we’re hoping the slower growing over the winter coupled with diligent weeding will help keep things under control.

We have approached each no-dig bed differently in this garden so far. The first bed was made with about three inches of well-rotted grass cuttings topped with another three inches of compost, with sides made from old wooden fencing; the second and third were made with about four/five inches of compost on top of cardboard with fencing sides; and for this last bed, we simply laid two layers of newspaper with about four inches of compost on top, with no sides.

We planted 90 onion sets (shenshyu) and 25 garlic cloves (fokhagyma) directly into the growing site.

We’re hoping to have a harvest of onions and garlic by the early summer of 2021. We will need to plant more of both in the spring and again in the early summer to keep us supplied for as much of the year as possible. We cook with both daily.

Last winter we overwintered a similar amount of garlic and onions and harvest them in early June, we scoffed the lot in about three months.