The first of April is usually when I begin planning on putting onions into the garden. In fact I love placing them in totes which is how I grow onions from year to year with good success.
With cooler but warm enough weather for onions to survive right now was a perfect time to get them into totes. I even planted some in the ground as well since I had plenty of onion bulbs left.
Yesterday I was able to get the entire onion harvest completed. It doesn’t take long to take out onions once you get started it goes very quickly. All I do is pull them out and brush off all the loose dirt and place them in a large container. Since I have five totes full of onions a small bucket will fill up very fast.
In total I was able to get over 30 pounds of onions and a count of 95. It seems like placing twenty bulbs in the beginning is the right amount you can place in these size totes. (more…)
Today was a warm day and after about a couple of weeks of my onion bulbs falling over I decided that it was time to pick them from the totes. I only do one tote at first to see if they are ready and are not beginning to rot or become infested with maggots. Once I inspect them and they seem good to be eaten then I work on the other totes.
I didn’t do all the totes today because some plants were still in the process of falling over. Picking them too soon is just as bad as picking them too late. I will most likely get the rest of them tomorrow. It’s a very simple process and if you do them in totes they come out of the soil incredibly easy without having to use a shovel and dig them out. (more…)
It has been a while since I last wrote a post on this blog and I thought it would be good to give you a quick update on what is happening so far. I now have four pumpkins that are growing in the garden and I may have a fifth one coming soon. I have been taking pictures of them so that I can easily see their progress over a short period of time.
As you know my zucchinis are coming in one after the other and I don’t see any sign of them slowing down. Blueberries are starting to wind down and today I think I reached the peak of the blueberry season for this year. Tomatoes are doing good and will be ripening very shortly as long as the warm weather holds up. (more…)
It has been quite a long time since I wrote a post on my blog and since then it has been a busy week for gardening. With the weather getting much warmer and all my plants are enjoying the outside weather it was time to get started with tilling the garden.
I usually start tilling when the weather gets consistently warmer and usually is in the beginning of May. It all depends mainly on the weather especially if there has been much rain. I don’t like to till when the ground is too wet and is better to wait for the soil to dry a little bit. A moist layered soil is fine conditions for proper tilling. Take a look at these pictures of my tilled garden. (more…)
From time to time I will take pictures of my plants and post them on this website for you to see what they look like and how they are growing. Since these are the only two plants that are in the garden so far that is what I will discuss in this post.
Once I plant more in the garden I will be giving updates on most of my plants, but only when they receive fruit or other events happen with them. It would not be wise to post pictures of these plants every day. I will however do an update at least once a week and when fruit starts to grow then the frequency will increase. For now let’s stick to onions and spinach. (more…)
Yesterday I decided to pick some of the spinach leaves that were getting quite large outside. I like picking the leaves when they get large enough that they can be used for a sandwich. You can pick them small and toss them into a salad, but I prefer larger darker leaves rather than small paler ones.
One thing you need to keep in mind is not picking too many leaves because this could cause them to go to seed very quickly and that would end your spinach season. So to prevent this from happening I always leave a couple of large leaves on the plant.
This way you are not shocking them with removing too much of the leaves. As long as you keep feeding them they will continue to produce delicious green foliage. Here are some pictures I took of before and after cutting the leaves. (more…)
Today is a quick update on what has been happening in the garden and new seeds that have been planted inside. As you know onions were planted about a couple of weeks ago during some of the warmer days that we had. Onions love cooler temperatures and a moist soil. Luckily the past week has provided them with the desired environment for them to grow rather quickly.
I also have some updates regarding the last of the beneficial flowers that I have planted indoors. I always find it important to grow as much as you can in the beginning, but these plants are very quick to generate flowers and they can be used as an herb as well.
Some flowers that I planted earlier in the season have began sprouting and are starting to show signs of small blossoms. If they start blooming inside that is fine because these types of flowers will bloom all year round. This will produce enough food for the beneficial insects and bees that you are trying to attract and bring to your garden. (more…)
Today I want to discuss how I plant my onions and what I think the best way that you can easily increase your yield with a simple to use method. Instead of planting them in the ground I use large totes that hold enough soil for these plants to thrive and grow to a reasonable size. I have been using this method ever since I started gardening and it has worked every year.
Now normally I wouldn’t wait to mid April to start planting them in the totes. It is best to grow them the first of April which is what I have been doing for the many years of gardening. This year I guess I happened to forget about them and didn’t realize it until a couple of days ago. (more…)
