Planting out in the Vegetable Garden

Although many gardeners wait until February, if you live in a mild part of the country January is a good month for planting shallots. These finely flavoured relatives of the garden onion tend to be more prolific and have a multitude of use's from being used in sauces, casseroles and not forgetting pickled and in chutneys. Plant out the shallots in rows 30cm apart, space each bulb roughly 15cm apart, this is best worked out as the difference between thumb and little finger. Push the bulbs in nice andfirm leaving the tip of the collar exposed from the soil. Loosely planted shallots are easy targets for birds and they will make light work of pulling them free. ;