My Tiny PlotOnion Harvest
I just pulled these onions a few days ago and they are now drying out in my garden. I’m not sure how many white onions I have – around 30 I think. And a basketful of shallots too. There are probably another 20 red onions still in the ground up at mtp. Did anyone else have terrible trouble with weeds around their onions? I think I planted them too close to each other (they were about 7-8cm apart) because I couldn’t get my hoe in to weed around them and so they became choked with bind weed. David (my guru) came over about a month ago and said, “now’s the time you should be top-dressing onions with nitrogen but I wouldn’t bother with those, they’re so big already.” Then he walked off in a huff because my onions didn’t need any nitrogen – ho-hum! You’ve either got it or you haven’t (nitrogen that is). Last year I plaited them onto strings with varying success. This site shows you how to plait onions in pictures which is quite useful.
Corking onions MTP!
Just wanted to say I really love your website. I am a new gardener your age with my first veggie plot and it’s been great reading your site. I’ve been reading what you were up to this time last year also to try and keep myself right with what I should be doing. I bought the Delia Kitchen Garden book and I find it really helpful. I think I read it every night! I have also been reading The Urban Gardener which is a collection of the author’s columns, written by a girl our age for The Telegraph and her first plot over a three year period. It’s really good.
I have huge plans for next year. This year I just did a little but next year…
I lifted my onions at the weekend but they’ve not gone all nice and brown like yours yet. Maybe in Scotland they take longer as it’s a bit cooler?? Who knows, trial and error. My huge success has been my courgette plant. It’s done so well. Oh, and my tatties and carrots. Rocket though… complete failure, got entirely eaten by something.
Looking forward to your next update.
Hi Lynne,
Thanks for your post. I’ll check out the Urban Gardener book as I too am addicted to Delia at midnight!
I think the trick with onions is to leave them in the ground until the tops go brown. As you can see from my picture I couldn’t wait that long so some of them are still green. They will be eaten first.
I had great success with courgettes in my first year too. They like rich soil and my plot hadn’t been worked for a while so I think I benefitted from that. This year they are good too, though not so prolific.
As for the rocket – probably flea beetles. I had the same problem. Put it in a cold frame next year to keep the little blighters out.
It’s great to finally find a website that I can relate to … I haven’t a clue what I’m doing with my own vegetable plot – having fun though. Everynight I go out and see what’s grown (or not). My beetroot is rather good, tomatoes are coming on well, my corn is over 7 feet tall with several cobs on each plant, green beans and peas however …. bit of a disaster? They all dried up to nothing! I think the birds ate them also.
I’m planning on planting my onions next month for the winter – the Dobie catalogue sells them, also cabbage …
Try Sarah Raven’s ‘ The Great Vegetable Plot’ – great book, very simple and has nice recipes also.
Michelle
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