Not a bad result for a first year experiment growing garlic and onions in a small raised bed (5m x 1m). The raised bed is now full of tomatoes coming to fruit so lifting the garlic and onions allows extra space and nutrients for the crop. Getting this extra crop from the same bed is an excellent use of the limited space.
Garlic and onions are an excellent crop for extending the growing season of a raised bed. Garlic is best planted in the autumn (Oct/Dec) while onion sets (immature onion bulbs) are planted early in the year (Jan/Mar). Here the front half of the bed was planted with onions and garlic and the back half reserved for tomatoes and cucumbers planted in May/June.
The garlic grown in the raised bed produced far better results than the garlic planted in pots. The cloves were planted in a centre line down the length of the bed and in a patch at one end. These matured and stopped growing in the last month or two, at just the time the tomatoes took over the growing space.
The front area of the raised bed is now available for planting a range of crops brought on in pots ready for planting out now. These include beetroot, basil, chilli peppers and radish. The patch used for garlic is now planted out with a range of onions started from seed.
Garlic and onions have been an excellent addition to the raised bed, extending the growing season by several months. Cropping at this time frees up valuable growing space for further crops that can benefit from the summer conditions. The harvest itself will be dried out over the next few weeks and put to good use.