PICTURED here is the current world record heaviest onion ever. Grown in 2024 by Gareth Griffin from Guernsey, it tipped the scales at 19lb 7lb.
Gareth Griffin’s onion holds the World Record for heaviest onion (Image: Peter Fawcett)
If you want to grow a whopper for your local show, now is the time to set your seed. Try a variety such as Ailsa Craig, a Scottish onion variety named after a small granite island in the Firth of Clyde, off the Ayrshire coast.
Bred in 1887 by David Murray, the head gardener at Culzean Castle at the time, the island of Ailsa Craig is visible from the castle grounds. Ailsa Craig is a versatile, multi-purpose onion famed for its large globe shape and lovely mild flavour. My own favourite is Kelsae. These can be bought as plants or grown from seed placed in boxes of John Innes seed compost and placed in a heated propagator or on a heat mat set at 65F (18C). The greenhouse temperature should be set lower at around 50F (10C).
I like to sow my onions one by one in Jiffy 7s – they are like coins until soaked in water, they then expand to the size of a thumb. I then place them 2in apart (5cm) in seed boxes of potting compost. A window box propagator is a cheap alternative. It can be simply placed near a radiator in the kitchen by the kitchen window.
February 2 is National Hedgehog Day. The hedgehog is the gardener’s friend. He gobbles up slugs and snails and keeps a low profile doing so. There is a hog in the allotments but it’s very rare we see him.
There are lots of ways to help hogs in their work keeping pests down. For instance, I cut out a small hole from my allotment to the next to allow the hog to move around.
In gardens, hedgehogs thrive where there are thick shrub plantations, where they can move from one plantation to the other. So, if you can, plant bushy shrubs such as Weigela, Potentilla, Pyracantha and Berberis, any shrubs which will create hiding and, more essentially, nesting and hibernating places.
Hedgehogs also need nesting materials. Leaf litter should be raked up around the shrubs, this will prevent weed growth. The leaves will also add fertility to the soil. This is much better than the modern trend of putting bark or wood chips on.
Safety is important too. If using slug pellets do not spread them around like confetti at a wedding.
Place pellets, just four or five is sufficient, under an upturned clay pot where the slugs will find them but safely away from the hedgehogs and birds.
The Ancient Romans relied on hedgehogs to determine if spring was coming soon, and it is surprising how quickly we will move into spring.
Plant hedge even if you’ve been saddled with the modern builders’ preference, an ugly fence, which is unfriendly to our wildlife – have you ever seen a bird nesting on a fence? Also many other species benefit from hedge rows, a hedge also calms down high wind speeds we are now getting.
I cannot impress on you how important it is to plant hedge rows, towns are becoming a no go landscape for our wildlife with fences being erected without a thought for our natural environment. It is getting so bad that I am of the opinion that government legislation is required.
Here in the UK, fences can be a maximum of two metres (approximately 6.5ft) in the back gardens and one metre (3.2ft) in the front garden. These limits are far too generous and need amending. Presently, hedges that don’t create ecological links between woodland, for example around a building or leading from a fence, are not eligible for grants for planting – this needs to be amended to encourage urban planning.
Preparation is how to get a hedge off to a flying start. Very often people take a spade, make a slit in the ground and plant the bare-rooted whip, firming it in with their foot.
This is all very well and quick but, for better results, a trench can be dug a spade depth, two spades wide. Organic material should then be forked into the bottom of the trench.
Then plant the whips – 2ft tall are ideal – 18 inches apart in a double staggered row, which is approximately eight per yard or meter. Any very long roots can be reduced in length. Firm in with your heel. A sprinkling of bone meal in between will set them off to a good start.
But don’t do this job if the land is very wet or frozen. The planting of trees, shrubs and hedges really needs to be done from now early March when the plants are still dormant. Whips can be found for sale in the classified section of the T&A.
My attention was focused recently on a story from the 1970s of Askham Bryan College York told by a gardener friend.
As well as learning and studying, there was a lot of trade encountered by local hostelries. Rivalry between the farmers and gardener students (Agrics and Hortics as they were known) produced some comical results.
One night a big hefty farmer said with confident voice that an “Agric could drink a Hortic under that table any time! Then popped up a tall thin slightly scrawny Hortic who said “We’ll see about that!” The challenge was on; the two 21-year-olds began a drinking contest, pint after pint, egged on by other students. The two went eye to eye until rendered senseless. Both were carried back to campus by fellow students, almost as langers as the two. Such is youth.
* Peter’s book, Gardener’s Delight, is available by emailing peterfawcett0@gmail.com or calling (01274) 873026.
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