Plant Rescue 103B - Onions

Overwintered onions,  3/19/2012

      My post about onions on March 14th did not contain pictures about cleaning up the onions that overwintered.  There were bulbs from the porch that had started to sprout, and bulbs from both gardens that are starting to regrow.  When they regrow, they send up multiple new plants which should be separated and replanted.  I hope the new shoots make good bulbs, or this activity is a waste of time.  In this picture above, you can see the new growth starting on two of these onions.  I have already started to peel the shiny one.

      Layer after layer needs to be peeled back until you get to individual plantlets.  This onion is nice because it is still mostly firm.  Some in the ground can be pretty mushy and yucky, thus a mess to tear apart.

Onions to replant, 3/19/2012

      Those two onions resulted in this total of eight stems to replant.  I have not found any literature on this topic of regrowth.  Will the newly planted onions think they are two years old, and thus try to go to seed before they form bulbs?  Any thoughts here?

Plant Rescue 103A - Onions

Onion Bed,  3/12/2012

      Last fall I replanted the onions from the summer harvest that were too small or too soft to want to keep.  Over the winter, many of them split into multiple stems, like the largest onion clump in this picture.  The red and white onions have split much more than the yellow onions.  I dug up the multiple onions:

      Then carefully pulled them or cut them apart to individual stems.  Often the outside of the onion was very soft and mushy, and had to be pulled off and composted.  This is the collection of cleaned up stems:

      These would have made nice green onions to eat, but I wanted to put them back in the ground.  I trimmed off a lot of the roots, leaving about an inch.  Tops were not trimmed, but probably could have been as the other gardeners who buy onion slips to plant receive them with trimmed tops.

Separated and replanted onions,  3/12/2012

      This is my first attempt at dividing and replanting onions, garlic, and shallots.  Anybody have any experience or expectations as to what will happen?

Plant Rescue 103 - Onions

      In one of my many information seeking trips on the internet, I came across a very interesting reference about regrowing onions using the bottom rooty part of the discarded onion.  Talk about recycling.  Well I just had to try that neat idea.  The biggest problem is to remember to save that bottom piece instead of throwing it into the compost bin.

Onion pieces planted,  2/26/2012

Onions regrowing,  3/7/2012

      So cut off the bottom piece of the onion that contains the ring of little nubby roots.  I sliced about 1/2 inch off the bottom.  Indent that piece into damp soil, not wet.  Leave the cut side above ground level to avoid rot.  Water as needed to keep moist.......Wow.  That was pretty easy.  And exciting.  One of the cuts is even going to make two new onion plants.  I will separate that to two plants.  Talk about a perpetual growing machine!  I am going to put them outside soon, as onions can certainly take this weather.

Back Garden Update, 2/1/2012

      Here we are into February!  The winter has been about non existent so far.  That is no complaint by me.  Although it seems I would not have needed the cold frames, only the real hardy kales and collards appear edible if not under cover.  Other things may be alive, but not appealing.  But the cold frames have been productive throughout the winter.  And now the day length is past ten hours, which will increase production.

Feb 1st:    Day length:   10 hrs, 11 min 
                Sunrise:         7:10 AM
                Sunset:          5:21 PM
                High Temp:    67 degrees F      Low Temp:    46 degrees F

Don't be fooled by those temperatures, the high should be in the low forties (41 average at this time).

Wooden Frame, 2/1/2012

      The mizuna mustard that was transplanted a couple of weeks ago is doing quite well.  Some of the transplants from last fall have died.  I had left the transplants on top of the soil for a couple of weeks, probably killing the outer roots.  Then when put in the cool ground, they probably never developed a good root system.  Had I not been lazy and planted them immediately, I probably would have done a lot better.  Or if I had divided the lettuce and potted it up to develop good roots, I suspect I would have had better transplant success.  In any case, the above frame has been yielding good pickings for salads.

Trex frame, 2/1/2012

Trex frame, left side

      The mustard greens in the upper left corner were lifted from a path at the park and have transplanted quite well.  The thick stem chinese mustard to the top right has been doing much better in cold frames than the patch left unprotected at the park.  There are a couple of head lettuce that should be harvested. 

Trex frame, right side

      The pak choi at the top has died, and some of the minutina in the bottom right corner don't look good.  Don't know why in either case.  The tatsoi however, is doing great, and needs to be thinned out.

      These red burgundy onions rescued from the compost pile at the park had begun to sprout on the porch.  Black aphids were multiplying on the green sprouts.  So they have been planted to an outdoor bed.  The cold exposure will put a major hurt on the aphids.  Each onion should sprout multiple plants which can then be separated and replanted.  I don't know whether I will get bulb onions from that effort, but I will certainly get lots of scallions.

Thanksgiving Bounty

      Our Thanksgiving will be celebrated early tomorrow at noon, so that Emily and family may move on to a second glutinous sitting in the late afternoon.  Whoops, I meant to say gourmandish.  Well what can we come up with from the garden for the Thanksgiving feast?

      Oh no, where did the chinese cabbage go?  I am happy to say It went home with me, foiling the deer and the voles for maybe the first time.  So to the young buck who was waiting till Thanksgiving to share this delicacy with Dosey Doe, I got there first.  The outer leaves will be saved for making a delicious baked cabbage dish, and the smaller inner leaves are going on the veggie platter.  The chinese cabbage has a much milder flavor than regular cabbage, and it is crispier too.  Can be used raw, stir fried, or baked.

Safely cut and ready to transport, 11/23/11

Ready to pick, 11/23/11

Egyptian Walking Onions, 11/23/11

      Emily is in charge of the salad, but I was in charge of the salad greens.  The green onions may go either in the salad or on the veggie and dip platter.

Salad greens and green onions, 11/23/11

Rogue radish patch, 11/23/11

      And remember that little patch of spilled radish seeds?  The ones that had the audacity to grow right in the wood chip path?  Well they continue to provide the nicest radishes that I have ever had.

Radishes from wood chip path, 11/23/11

       Together with a more familiar red radish volunteer and three beautiful young heads of broccoli, we have a fine addition for the veggie platter.

Broccoli and radishes, 11/23/11

      And lest we forget the days of summer, we harvested one of the white Casper pumpkins from our stash on the porch.  We are actually going to have pumpkin as a side dish, but there is so much that I think we will freeze some for muffins or pies.

Casper Pumpkin, 11/23/11 but picked months ago

George and Casper trying to find out who is bigger and badder, 11/23/11

George won that battle

      So preparations are being made for the feast tomorrow.  Had I talked with Barb and Em, we could have pooled our supplies of swiss chard for Cindy's spanekopeta.  But instead, we will have to settle for using frozen spinach.  Bummer.
      I am thankful for the opportunity to have family together for Thanksgiving, and I am happy to have so much fresh organic produce from my garden.  I am thankful for Moira Sheridan and Bob King showing me the possibilities of fall gardening.  Way beyond just the tomatoes and cucumbers of the summer.  Maybe you can have your own Thanksgiving goodies next year.
      Gobble gobble, have a great turkey day!

Waste Not

      One thing that I find fun and challenging about gardening is the ability to often recycle things, such as pots, poles, boards, leaves,and oh yes, plants.

Leaf pile, as of 11/15/11

      The leaves are almost finished falling from my trees, and the neighbors trees.  Several neighbors bring over their leaves, and yesterday I mowed my next door neighbor's back yard leaves into my flowerbed.  I will shred the above pile with the mower, so next spring I will have lots of beautiful leaf mold.  The leafy greens in front are swiss chard.  This clump is ready for a last harvest, then I hope to move the plants to a cold frame to hopefully overwinter them.  Although swiss chard is quite cold hardy, I have not had much luck, maybe one in ten plants, with it overwintering unprotected.

Red onions, 11/15/11

White and yellow onions, 11/15/11

      The onions above are the last of my onions from the summer crop.  Some were too small to bother with trying to use.  Some were sprouting, and some were gasp, mushy.  So back in the ground they go.  I expect all to sprout usable scallion type onions, and hope some will develop bulbs.  All should overwinter without protection.  The green sprouts in the red onion picture are peas that sprouted from pods that fell from plants in the summer.  They will not produce peas before the winter kill, but the sprout tops and tendrils are delicious and pretty on a salad.

Ruby lettuce, 11/15/11

      One of my park gardening neighbors is about to put his plot to bed for the winter, and was not interested in these Ruby Lettuce volunteers in his garden.  Well I was!  What a bounty.  I potted them all up for a few days, hopefully to allow them to develop nice roots.  Remember those straw bales for my daughter's new cold frame, well here is some beautiful lettuce for a start.  And below are some starts of Tatsoi and thick stem chinese mustard getting ready for transplant to some cold frame.

Tatsoi on the left, chinese mustard on the right

      And lastly, pictured below, are some baby lettuce volunteers on the park compost pile.  Don't rush over there to get them, as they have already decided to move on.  They appear to be a green romaine lettuce, a very welcome addition to my lettuce collection.  So all of these plants have been saved from ending up on the compost pile, and some had actually started out there!

Compost pile lettuce

After the Nor'easter

      We dodged another hyped storm here in Wilmington.  A very good thing in my estimation.  Areas in Maryland and Pennsylvania got over two feet, and there are massive power outages caused by fully leaved trees being toppled due to the heavy sticky snow.  We got maybe an inch in places, but I still wondered what may have happened to my gardens.  After breakfast, I headed out back.

      Above is the recently constructed cold frame cozily covered by a layer of snow.  I just planted some of this frame a week ago, and it contains some flats of veggie starts not yet in the ground.  The snow should melt off, as we are expecting a high of 50 today.

      This a cold frame with various lettuces.  It will be ready for harvesting in a few days.

      Here are some tomatoes that I might pick today.  Daughter Emily has a recipe for green tomatoes that she likes.  Maybe this is the opportune time to try it.

      The trip over to the park revealed beds in pretty good shape.  Shown above are two stacks of glass panels that I coulda, woulda, shoulda have put down two days ago before the storm.  Duh.  And yet I thought that the forecast low of 32 degrees would not hurt any of these fall crops, and I was right.  Lucky, as it would have been a really big dumb moment to find a scene of mass destruction this morning.

      The cardoon on the right survived much better than I had expected.  I was prepared to see the plants totally broken and knocked over.  Only a leaf or two were broken.  I have still to get the inspiration to cut the cardoon and cook it.  Any suggestions appreciated.
      The nasturtium in the background was quite a pleasant surprise.  It is very frost sensitive and goes to mush when iced.  I better pick it today or find a way to cover it as tonight is supposed to be sub freezing.  The onions on the left are Egyptian walking onions.  They are eaten as green onions or scallions, and are just now ready for picking.  Emily, do you see those yummies?

      On the left above is a patch of arugula, and on the right the patch of tatsoi.  Both are pretty cold tolerant, and neither seemed to suffer at all.  Both could use some thinning of plants to move to other cold frames.  Any interest out there?

      Above are mixed greens, lettuces, garlic, and more arugula.  Everybody quite happy after the storm.  All should survive temperatures above 28 degrees.

      A closer look at the nasturtium, with an artichoke nestled in.

      A closer shot of the cardoon.  Cardoon and artichokes are closely related, both being in the thistle family.

      The chinese cabbage is looking better and better.  I pray thet some deer doesn't think so too.

      Nasturtium, artichoke, black seeded simpson and a red lettuce all happily crowded together with a dusting of snow.

       And to say goodbye for the moment, a second generation volunteer sunflower for the season.  This plant sprouted from seed dropped from a volunteer early in the summer.  This is the first bloom, and maybe the last.  Perhaps this plant should have waited until next year to sprout.  But yet a pleasant way to start a snowy morning

Pretty Harvest

      What a difference a few hours can make!  It is so nice out this afternoon, a big change from being caught in a rain squaw in the garden this morning.  Both the temperature and humidity have dropped.  We will be complaining about the forecast high of only 59 degrees for Saturday, but it will feel nice.  And make for some no sweat gardening weather.
      And now we have a tale of two gardens.  The fall crops are doing fine at the Bellevue Park garden, but the tomatoes are suffering and there was not a single pepper picked all summer long for me.  Yet at home I am still getting tomatoes and peppers, but the harlequin beetles are trashing the newly planted cole crops.  I don't really have an explanation.  But I still have tomatoes!

Back yard pickings, 9/29/11

      The pepper on the left was a nice surprise discovered on the ground, but in flawless condition.  The yellow tomato in the middle is Dr. Wyche, and the purply one on the right is a Black Krim.  Dinner is going to be yummy.
      A few days ago I gave Bob King a small bag of Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs.  Today he returned the favor with a nice little supply of yellow onion sets.  They were planted at the park, in the west end of bed #2, on the north side behind my planting of the walking onions.

Yellow onion sets planted 9/29/11

Walla Walla bing bang

      This morning was the harvest of the Walla Walla onion crop, started from seed way back on January 15.  Remember back then when it was cold and dreary, and we would have delighted in a hot and humid summer day in the nineties?  Snow will come again and we will ache for the good old days of summer.

Walla Walla onions, 8-2-11

Walla Walla onions at top of picture

      I had started a flat of Walla Walla onion seed on 1/15/11, and a flat of Red Burgundy onions on 1/16/11.  The germination rates of both were disappointing, especially the Red Burgundy.  Both seed packets were for use in 2010, and that may have been a problem as I have since read that onion seed does not keep very well.  So maybe it would make sense on the next try to fork over for current seed rather than trying for the 1/2 off sales for prior year seed.  I would also think the seed could be planted in December, as a little more size to the seedlings would be great.  The flat of Walla Walla seedlings was transplanted this morning (that is 3-22-11), with plants on about 4 inch centers.

Walla Walla onions planted 3-22-11

Lettuce Eat

      This past Sunday the family got together for lunch after watching Austin and Ella sing in the children's choir.  What a great job they did!  It was Pop Pop's responsibility to provide the salad greens, though I did ask Em to bring some of hers.  But hers were late in coming, so we went all Bellevue garden.

 

      The first step was using the greens I had picked a few days ago and had left in the fridge in the "salad spinner".  To these, I added the freshly picked greens just spun as shown below.

Fresh Bellevue greens, 4/9/11

      I forget whose idea it was to use a pillow case as a cheap salad spinner, but it sure works well.  We look kind of funny swinging a pillow case around on the front porch in inclement weather, but the proof is in the spinning.  Then you can even store the greens in the damp pillow case in the fridge and they look great for days.

      What would a salad be without some form of onion?  These are fresh onions picked as scallions before they reach the bulbing stage.  These had been onions that were not large enough to bother cutting last year, and got put back in the garden in October to grow on again.  Recycling.

Scallions, grown from last year's small white bulbs

       The last picture is the bed of greens waiting for a little color addition of sweet red pepper slices and black olives.  My what a fresh tomato would have accomplished.

Salad greens in walnut bowl, 4/9/11

      Probably fifteen or twenty years ago my father had a large walnut tree blow over on his property.  He commissioned the very talented wood carver Jack Smollens to create seven salad bowls from the large trunk piece.  Our bowl is certainly destined to become a family heirloom.