Friday, October 7, 2011

Gardening: The onions are coming! The onions are coming!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange just emailed to let me know that my order is on its way. Specifically, four ounces of white multiplier onions, a pound of grey shallots, and twenty ounces of yellow potato onions, "Medium and Large Bulbs". And some Egyptian Brown Onion seed for next year. If it works for our climate; it was an impulse purchase.

Territorial will be sending me an ounce of Egyptian Walking Onions and half a pound each of Chesnok Red, Inchelim Red, Polish Softneck, Premium Northern White, and Purple Italian Easy Peel garlic. Oh, and another, er, five pounds of yellow multiplier onions, which I'm assuming are similar, or perhaps identical, to the yellow potato onions. I really must keep track of my orders.

That's just the onions. Just the perennial onions; the onions from seeds or set will wait for spring.

Onions aside, John Scheepers will be sending me twenty each of Kingsblood, Menton Exotic, and Negrita tulips. Also fifty each of the Single Late Pastel Mix tulips and King Alfred Jumbo daffodils. Oh, and five species lily bulbs.

A quick summing up, and a guesstimate of bulbs per ounce, suggests that I will soon have over four hundred individual bulby things to plant. It might be just as well that I forgot to order peony roots. Again. Then again, maybe it's not too late?

Now, some people cheerfully plant a thousand bulbs in a day, but I may have overdone this just a fraction. In spite of that, I can't stop thinking that maybe I should order another few hundred tulips.

Assuming that I'm not just planting a winter gopher buffet, it's also going to be a pungent 2012. On top of all of the oniony things above, I'll be planting Copra onions again in the spring, this time at approximately the right time instead of six weeks late. I'll be growing my own plants from seed in the World's Smallest Greenhouse, and ordering plants, just in case.

(Re the gopher buffet, I did buy three modest-sized gopher baskets, to hopefully assure that I'll at least get to taste some grey shallots.)

Oh, and there's always leeks. Did I mention leeks? I can't make up my mind about them. On the one hand, I love the way they look in the garden. On the other hand, I hate puttering with trenches, and I know I won't hill them up, and are leeks any good if you don't hill them up? Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has perennial leeks, though they're sold out; I may wait until next year and grow my leeks that way.

Speaking of perennial stalky onions, I have theoretically-perennial scallions, huddling up to the herbs. And, of course, chives. And some clumps of garlic chives that for some reason I planted by the street, that I could divide and install among the vegetables.

I should probably do some square footage calculations here. Himself is not going to be pleased if the onions don't leave any room for next year's corn.

Image: By Filk R. Wikimedia Commons.

6 comments:

  1. I'm floored. Or maybe just impressed. You're going to plant a thousand bulby things?

    I will be LUCKY to get a dozen daffodils in the ground this fall. Plus a peony or three...

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  2. Yo! No, just roughly four hundred and sixty. :) But that may be overkill.

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  3. oh, yum! Yumions! Great recipe for onions stuffed with ground pork, topped with Gruyere (pretty much what it says right there, with spices and a bit of egg to bind).

    I just had the JULIE utility locator folks out today - we are doing the second, raised bed and I don't need any drama with cut-cables, etc. I planted garlic this spring for next but think I inadvertently pulled it up. We'll see...


    I'm excited for you! I use leftover metal meshy stuff from jobs (we have a machine shop) for my bulby-things and leftover grating for the top - seems to work (squirrels are a problem here, more than gophs)

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  4. Good recipe for shallots:

    Cut shallots and cauliflower into slices, then drizzle olive oil and cilantro on them. Put them in the oven on a plate for 15 minutes at 350.

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  5. Yo, Musette! Ooh, that sounds good. And this year's onions were a great deal more successful than I expected (I all but abandoned them when I realized that I'd planted them at the wrong time), so I should find things to do with them.

    My sympathy for the garlic. :( There's always next year?

    We don't seem to have many squirrels. And I'm assured that gophers won't climb above the cages and dive in, but I don't understand why not. I'm tempted to protect the top as well, like you do.

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  6. Howdy, Joan! Ooh, that sounds _good_. And if it succeeds, there'll be cauliflower out of the garden, too. (I read that cauliflower is highly picky about growing conditions.) I love the idea of dishes where essentially all of the ingredients came out of the garden.

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