There’s been a potting frenzy going on in my polythene tunnel this week. With the weather improving, I made the decision to empty the tunnel of the spring plants. Plants such as pansies tend to get leggy if they are left in the cosy environment for too long, so I thought the time was right for them to fend for themselves. This left me with a lot of space to fill, so I peeked into the heated propagator and saw there were plants ready to pot on to larger containers. The first batch is well on the way to filling all the available space. I have decided to use nine packs this year for plants such as marigolds, stocks and lobelia, these I hope will give customers better value for money and fill their containers more effectively. The summer flowering plants will still need a lot of attention to keep them properly watered and protected until they have grown up a bit, but in a month or so they are destined for a life outdoors to make way for the second phase of more tender plants like petunias and Impatiens.
To keep the momentum up with the plants, I have been taking cuttings of flowering perennials for use in hanging baskets in mid summer. I was happily snipping away at my parent plants getting some choice cuttings when my youngest lad walked into the tunnel brandishing his pair of scissors. Michael, as he is called decided that he wanted to help me with my work, which I thought was very endearing. Unfortunatly Michaels idea of taking cuttings differ from my own, he proceeded to cut up my herb labels then moved on to reduce the cuttings I had taken into tiny pieces. I thought his time would be better spent with his mother indoors so I escorted him into the house only to find that he had already been hard at work with the scissors cutting up one of my cheques that needed cashing. After a happy half hour with a roll of sellotape I managed to piece the cheque together again. The woman at the bank was very nice about it. She has seen Michael’s handywork with a pen so it came as no surprise. Anyway on my way back from the bank I popped into the Co-op and bought myself a few bags of onion sets to cheer me up a bit.
ONIONS
Onions can be very easy to grow and are quite undemanding, they are an ideal vegetable for the novice gardener, and you could even plant them straight into your herbaceous borders. I have decided to grow the onion sets (small immature onions), as they are easier to handle than seed. The sets have a better resistance to pests and disease and I can assure you there are plenty of them, onion fly, bolting, onion thrips and plenty of nasty viruses too. I find that companion planting usually keeps most things at bay. Plant onions with carrots for example, the carrots confuse the onion fly and the onions confuse the carrot fly, throw a few Calendulas in there to attract the hoverfly too. The bulbs do best in a sunny, well-drained site, on a sloping garden for example. Plant them up on the higher ground, this will prevent them rotting in the wet soil. Onions do well in fertile soil, but like garlic they don’t need high nitrogen, so it is not necessary to put on fresh compost or manure.
PLANTING
I tend to cram my onions in because I very rarely let them get to maturity before I’m pulling them up to use in cooking, the recommended distances are10 inches (25cm) between the rows and 5-10 inches (2-4cm) between each bulb. Press the bulb gently into the ground so the top is just showing, that way if a bird thinks it’s spotted a juicy worm it will have a tough job trying to get it out of the ground. You will find that the bulb will push its way to the surface of the soil when it has rooted.
CROP CARE
Try to keep weeds to a minimum around the bulbs. Their upright growth isn’t effective at suppressing weeds, and these will take away nutrients that the onions need. Watering isn’t usually necessary, infact if they get too wet in the middle of July they don’t store as well.
HARVESTING
As soon as the leaves start turning yellow you can either pull the onions up and leave them to dry naturally in a warm, dry place or leave them in place and bend the necks over, they should be ready for storing after a couple of weeks. If the necks are large then use these onions first as they have a high water content and don’t store well. The ones for storing can be platted together like garlic or you could use a pair of old tights to do the same job. Put in an onion and tie a knot then put in another onion and so on until the leg is full!
Horticultural.
CUTTINGS
To keep the momentum up with the plants, I have been taking cuttings of flowering perennials for use in hanging baskets in mid summer. I was happily snipping away at my parent plants getting some choice cuttings when my youngest lad walked into the tunnel brandishing his pair of scissors. Michael, as he is called decided that he wanted to help me with my work, which I thought was very endearing. Unfortunatly Michaels idea of taking cuttings differ from my own, he proceeded to cut up my herb labels then moved on to reduce the cuttings I had taken into tiny pieces. I thought his time would be better spent with his mother indoors so I escorted him into the house only to find that he had already been hard at work with the scissors cutting up one of my cheques that needed cashing. After a happy half hour with a roll of sellotape I managed to piece the cheque together again. The woman at the bank was very nice about it. She has seen Michael’s handywork with a pen so it came as no surprise. Anyway on my way back from the bank I popped into the Co-op and bought myself a few bags of onion sets to cheer me up a bit.
ONIONS
Onions can be very easy to grow and are quite undemanding, they are an ideal vegetable for the novice gardener, and you could even plant them straight into your herbaceous borders. I have decided to grow the onion sets (small immature onions), as they are easier to handle than seed. The sets have a better resistance to pests and disease and I can assure you there are plenty of them, onion fly, bolting, onion thrips and plenty of nasty viruses too. I find that companion planting usually keeps most things at bay. Plant onions with carrots for example, the carrots confuse the onion fly and the onions confuse the carrot fly, throw a few Calendulas in there to attract the hoverfly too. The bulbs do best in a sunny, well-drained site, on a sloping garden for example. Plant them up on the higher ground, this will prevent them rotting in the wet soil. Onions do well in fertile soil, but like garlic they don’t need high nitrogen, so it is not necessary to put on fresh compost or manure.
PLANTING
I tend to cram my onions in because I very rarely let them get to maturity before I’m pulling them up to use in cooking, the recommended distances are10 inches (25cm) between the rows and 5-10 inches (2-4cm) between each bulb. Press the bulb gently into the ground so the top is just showing, that way if a bird thinks it’s spotted a juicy worm it will have a tough job trying to get it out of the ground. You will find that the bulb will push its way to the surface of the soil when it has rooted.
CROP CARE
Try to keep weeds to a minimum around the bulbs. Their upright growth isn’t effective at suppressing weeds, and these will take away nutrients that the onions need. Watering isn’t usually necessary, infact if they get too wet in the middle of July they don’t store as well.
HARVESTING
As soon as the leaves start turning yellow you can either pull the onions up and leave them to dry naturally in a warm, dry place or leave them in place and bend the necks over, they should be ready for storing after a couple of weeks. If the necks are large then use these onions first as they have a high water content and don’t store well. The ones for storing can be platted together like garlic or you could use a pair of old tights to do the same job. Put in an onion and tie a knot then put in another onion and so on until the leg is full!
Horticultural.
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