I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I bought my onion plants today. They should arrive the week of 4/8. I bought 3 bunches of candy sweet onions (it was cheaper to get 3 than 2), 1 batch of redwing red storage onions, and 1 batch of Patterson yellow storage onions. Each batch contains 50 to 60 plants. This should be enough onions for the year. I have had really good luck with storage onions. I have bought the candy sweets the last couple of years and they last a long time, at least six months, at which point I've used them all up, generally. At least what I didn't freeze. So I thought I'd grow them this year. They are my all time favorite onion.
But sometimes you don't want a sweet onion. I like red onions on salads. The kind I got two years ago, the Wethersfield reds did not perform well. At all. So I am trying another long term red storage onion. They are a smaller onion, but I have a hard time getting through regular sized red onions before they go bad as I am the only one who eats them and you can only eat so many slivers on a salad before you start sneezing your head off.
I usually get copra keeping onions for the yellow non-sweet onion, but they are always so small, so I thought I'd try the Pattersons this year and see how they are. They look bigger from the photos. The copras have lasted as long as a year, with just a few sprouting. I hope the Pattersons do as well. All told I paid $83.05 with shipping and taxes. Not bad for a year's supply of onions. Some of them I will grow just to the scallions size as we use a lot of those, too.
I think they are all hybrids, though, so if I save seed it might not be true, but you never know. I find planting onions from seed to be tedious, though, and I feel the plants do way better than the seeds or the bulbs.
I need to get out in the garden and weed a couple beds, though, so I have them ready for when the onions arrive. I need to go slowly and not do too much at once, but I think I can do about 8 x 2 feet a day without stressing my body too much.
As I have stated before, I am keeping it pretty easy this year. Two tomato plants, 8 peppers, lettuce, spinach, radishes, scallions, onions, kohlrabi, broccoli, zucchini, a yet to be determined form of winter squash, and herbs. Possibly cauliflower for Mom and maybe a few carrots, though I don't have much luck with them. I want to do cabbage, but it takes up a lot of space, so I don't know if I will, and they are so cheap at the store, even for the organic ones, it really isn't worth it. Mom will be planting potatoes, corn, and green beans, enough for both of us is the plan.
Garden Shopping
March 26th, 2019 at 08:40 am
March 26th, 2019 at 12:23 pm 1553602987
March 26th, 2019 at 03:43 pm 1553615032
Smart move on not overdoing it.
March 27th, 2019 at 12:27 am 1553646426
March 27th, 2019 at 01:00 am 1553648451
March 27th, 2019 at 12:27 pm 1553689677