Planting Onions
I’ve been starting all my onions from seed for many years, but this year I was a little too busy and purchased onion plants instead. They arrived last Thursday, which meant that Friday afternoon was spent planting onions.
Since I purchased plants, I’m only growing two varieties of onions this year: a yellow storage (Patterson) and a red storage (Redwing). Generally I grow six different varieties, but options are more limited when purchasing plants instead of packets of seed.
There were around 1000 plants, way more than I need as storage onions, but I planted them closely in order to have green onions throughout the summer. I like to have around 600 onions in storage for the winter, this is enough for us if we augment with other alliums, like leeks, green onions, shallots, etc. It will be interesting to see how these plants perk up and grow, I’ve never really grown onions from purchased plants before.
What’s your favorite kinds of onion?
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Friday Unfavorite: Wild Turkeys
We have quite a population of wild turkeys in the area, the flocks seem to get bigger and bigger every year. Which means they eat more and more. Of course vegetable gardens provide a delicious smorgasbord for wild animals and a flock of 25 or so wild turkeys can do some damage rather quickly.
This year I’m finally breaking down and putting metal fencing around both edible garden spaces. It won’t be a permanent structure quite yet, that will happen in 7-10 years. In the mean time, I need something to keep the birds out. Last year I lost a good amount to the turkeys. We have no summer broccoli because they ate the entire first and second plantings of it. Our Spring lettuce crops were decimated as well. At the moment, I’m protecting tender plants with low tunnels and plastic until we can get the fence up around the garden. Hopefully this will help deter the turkeys from eating the vegetables.
What’s your worst garden pest?
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It Survived!!!
In the spring I’m always eagerly anticipating the growth of all the plants, but I’m particularly interested in the plants that were added the previous season. This is always make or break time, they either survived the winter or they didn’t. After a summer and fall of drought last year, I was worried about the many new plants/trees I added to the garden. This spring I was over the moon when I noticed my Cornelian Cherry dogwood (Cornus mas) starting to bud. I watered it religiously last summer, but that’s not always a guarantee that things will survive.
When the buds burst forth into bloom I was even happier. This lovely little tree will be a welcome addition to the early spring garden, the sunny little blooms add such a pop of color. This year I’m hoping to prune it a bit and get starts from soft wood cuttings in July, perhaps I’ll save seed from the fruit and try that method as well. I’ll have to read up a bit on propagating this tree to ensure success.
Did you lose any plants this past winter?
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Quote of the Day: Gordon Hayward
“Stone gives our garden solidity and weight. It helps to frame views and bring out the colors of the foliage in our plantings; and it provides places to rest and foils for lawn. Used in paths, it shapes how we move through space. Stone artifacts lend a feeloing of time and history and often determine the mood and tone of an area.”
Gordon Hayward in Stone in the Garden
My Ohio garden had lots of stone features, every planting hole produced hundreds of stones ready to be used in walls and walkways. So I build walls and walkways with them.
Now that I’m settling on a design for this garden, stone walls are going to be added here and there throughout the garden. My first wall is on the upper side of the potager. Now that the big maple tree is gone, it’s time to level out this area and build walls around it.
The only difference is the size of many of the stones. I have access to stacks and stacks of large stones, these stacks were made by the original homesteaders here in the late 1800’s. I’m slowly moving these large stones and building walls that define gardens spaces and level out the very hilly nature of this garden.
Do you have any stone walls, walkways, or other features in your garden?
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New Vines
One thing I need to work on in this garden is vertical height. I need more climbing vines, more tall shrubs, more small trees, and a few specimen trees. Starting with climbing vines seemed like the easiest way to work on this. Lucky me two weeks ago when I went to a local store and they had clematis for $6.99 each.
I bought one of each variety and potted them up when I got home.
They’re currently growing very nicely on the back porch (didn’t think about getting photos until it was dark). One of them has shoots that are 6 inches tall already. I’m looking forward to adding these lovelies to a few areas to add a bit of beauty and height.
What’s your favorite climber?
