With the warm weather we are having, I know many of you are thinking about spring and gardening. With vegetable gardening one of the staples and easy to grow are onions. So here are some gardening hints about ONIONS.
In the kitchen, Onions are the one vegetable we must have on hand, no matter what, with ample backups, all the time. Their deep, rich flavor sounds the base note in delicious recipes the world over. Tomato sauce, salsas, soups, stews and casseroles would fall flat without the Onion’s mellow sweetness. When you’re the gardener as well as the cook, you can guarantee an ever-ready Onion stockpile for yourself. They’re remarkably easy to grow and even easier to store. With a bushel of Onions in your basement, you’ll be able to slip something from your own garden into almost every meal you make for the better part of the year, and for mere pennies (the frugal gardener and cook in each of us will rejoice.)
Seeds or Sets? If you’re new to growing Onions, planting “sets” is the easiest way to go. These are miniature Onions that were harvested last year before they could mature. Plant Onion sets this spring and they’ll practically leap out of the ground, giving you green Onions within a few weeks and full size Onions by late summer.
The only hard part about growing Onions from seed is making sure you get them planted early enough. Sow the seeds indoors, 10 to 12 weeks before planting time. (Complete instructions are included on seed packets). If you want to grow Onions from seed, now is the time to get them planted indoors.
Here are some websites about growing onions from seeds:
http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4076/how-to-grow-onions-from-seed/page/all
http://growagoodlife.com/how-to-grow-onions-from-seed/
Till next time, ENJOY the spring like weather we are having in Iowa, because it is IOWA, it will be changing. It is only FEB. so SNOW will be coming. Becky Litterer from Becky's Greenhouse, Dougherty
