The summer edible garden

Early May garden

Sunday, April 21, 2024

A summer edible garden has the crops must of us associate with backyard vegetable gardening like peppers, eggplants, cucumbers and the fresh favorite tomato.  The summer garden is planted in May to early June.  Summer crops love warm soil and air temperatures.  Most are subtropical in origin so a frost can kill them.  Plant seeds or transplants after all danger of frost has passed.  Since summer lovers thrive in warm temperatures, they don't really grow until the soil has warmed up so starting early outdoors isn't an advantage.  You can start them indoors early and then transplant when conditions are right to get a head start.  

For the summer garden, you plant in late spring, early summer for the heat lovers and then in the middle of summer for fall and winter crops.  You will need to save space to plant edibles for fall and winter harvests in July through early September.  For more on timing and types for planting the fall and winter crops, Time to plant for fall and winter harvests!.  

 There are two categories of edible garden crops, cold crops and warm season crops.  Cold crops like lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, carrots, cilantro, kale, chard, cabbage will bolt and become bitter as the temperatures start hitting the 80's.  For us, this is used to be the end of May.  Now, we can get 80's in April.

Warm season crops love the warm days of May through September and start waning in October.  Most will continue to have some production into November or the first hard frost of the year.  There are many herbs and vegetables that love the heat and humidity of summer, too.  Folks here in Kentucky say Derby Day week end is the time to plant out summer veggies.  The Kentucky Derby is always the first week end of May.

You can start your warm season crops indoors from seed or buy plants to get a jump start on getting harvests.  There are many options nowadays at the local hardware store, local nurseries and big box stores, from hybrids to heirlooms.

For indoor seed starting, here are some pointers.  Indoor seed starting tips, Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

Crops that do well with just planting seeds directly into the ground outdoors are corn, cucumbers, melons, squashes, and beans.  They have large seeds and very sturdy stems.  Outdoor seed starting tips  Sweet potatoes are started using slips that you buy or start indoors and then plant directly into the ground.

Everyone loves to brag about their first ripe tomato, but tomatoes don't appreciate cold feet so resist the urge to plant too early.  Once it warms up, they will really take off.  If you just can't resist, use a plastic covering on the ground to get the soil warm to plant early or use something like Wall o Water around each tomato to give it a coat to keep it toasty in spring.

Be sure to fertilize when planting and then monthly.  Water during dry periods.  Even moisture is important.  Letting the soil get very dry and then giving a good watering can give you split tomatoes.  For more on summer gardening, Summer garden tips

Warm Season Crops for the Summer Garden-Vegetables

Artichokes Growing artichokes and cardoons

Arugula  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Beans (fresh and shelling)  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer 

Celeriac  

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Chard  For year round steamed greens, grow chard!

Corn  Growing corn

Cucumbers  Cucumber info and tips for growing  Quick tip-Grow Up!

Cultivated Dandelions,  Grow Cultivated Dandelions

Edamame (soy beans)  Growing beans

Eggplant Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Kohlrabi  Kohlrabi-a less well known spring vegetable

Malabar Spinach  Growing summer salads

Melons  Growing melons and cantaloupe

New Zealand Spinach

Okra  Growing and harvesting okra

Peppers (sweet and hot)  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Sorrel Want a vegetable and fruit garden that you only have to plant once? Try perennials!

Sprouting broccoli  Sprouting broccoli- a year round fav

Summer squash  Growing zucchini and summer squash

Sweet potatoes  Growing sweet potatoes

Tomatoes  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Zucchini  What to do with all that zucchini?!

Mid-May garden

Herbs are the easiest thing to grow.  They thrive on heat and don't mind dry conditions.  If you are just starting out, this is a great one to start with.

Start a kitchen herb garden!

Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

Warm Season Crops for the Summer Garden-Herbs

Basil  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Bay

Bee balm

Borage

Catnip

Chives (Garden and Garlic) Add chives to your garden

Cilantro (heat tolerant variety)  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Comfrey

Dill

Egyptian walking onions  Egyptian walking onions

Horseradish

Mint

Lavender  All about lovely lavender

Lemon verbena

Lovage

Marjoram

Parsley (flat leaf) Self-seeding crops, plant once and forget 'em

Oregano

Rosemary

Sage

Salad Burnet

Summer savory

Tarragon

Thyme

Mid to late summer is the time to plant for fall and winter harvests so be sure to have a spot for these tasty vegetables.  For more on late summer plantings for fall harvests, here is more information.  Time to plant for fall and winter harvests!

Crops Planted in Mid to Late Summer for Fall and Winter Harvests

Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower (for fall harvests)

How to grow broccoli and cauliflower  Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Beets, Carrots, Radishes, and Turnips (for fall and winter harvests)

All about beautiful beets  Easy to grow crispy, peppery radishes  All you need to know about growing carrots  All about turnips

Cilantro  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Escarole, Radicchio, and Frisee (for fall and winter harvests)  Fall and winter greens

Fennel Growing fennel

Greens (Lettuce, Kale, Mustard, Pak Choi, Spinach)

Everything you need to know about growing lettuce  Collards and kale in your garden  Mustard greens  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

Leeks (for fall harvesting)  Everything to know about growing onions

Winter squash  Everything you need to know to grow squash

 You can procrastinate until June and still have a productive edible summer garden.  It is not too late to start a garden in June!

I always interplant my garden with flowers.  Flowers bring pollinators and other beneficial insects into the garden.  For fruiting veggies like tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, the more pollinators around, the more fruits you get.  If you want, you can grow edible flowers that are fun to add to salads.  Flowers that are edible

I use borage, amaranths, zinnias, marigolds, petunias, snapdragons, old fashioned Cock's Comb which is ruby red and grows 4 feet tall, red flowering Hummingbird Vine, Moonflower vine, Blue morning glory vine, heirloom sunflowers, and alyssum for annuals.  For perennials, there are spiderwort, delphiniums, hollyhocks in a variety of colors-Summer Carnival and Peach, day-lilies, irises, dahlias, fairy lilies, and gladiolas.  Three years ago I started a pollinator garden that is primarily natives like yarrow, echinacea, Black-eyed Susan bee balm, sedum, violets and many others.  It is finally starting to fill in.  Starting perennials from seed takes 2-3 years for them to really start filling out.

Summer is an exciting time in the garden.  Every day you go out, you can see things growing.  Just be sure to keep ahead of the weeds and provide even watering.  I garden in my flower beds so they are always mulched, providing protection against weeds and keeping even moisture.  Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds

What we're eating out of the garden now

April lettuce and chard

Saturday, April 20, 2024

This is the time for salads.  Many salad fixings are ready to be harvested from the garden.

The first to be ready to eat in the spring are all the cold hardy veggies that survived the winter and the edible perennials that are first up in the spring.

In our garden, the overwintering veggies were carrots, celery, lettuce, sprouting broccoli, chard, cultivated dandelions, chickweed, Egyptian walking onions, garden chives, garlic chives and mustard greens.  Edible perennials that are ready to add to salads are sorrel, tarragon, thyme, oregano, winter cress leaves and flowers, and cultivated dandelion leaves and flowers.  I'm harvesting from all of these.

I gave the greens a watering with liquid fertilizer, fish emulsion, which is high in nitrogen to get them the food they need for filling out.  Greens love nitrogen and cooler weather makes it less available in the soil.  A liquid fertilizer is an easy way to get usable nitrogen to the plant.

I started more lettuce and greens seeds indoors and transplanted them outdoors into a pot on the patio.  They are about 6" high and ready to be planted in their permanent home.   The spinach and snow peas I started outdoors in large pots are going strong.  I purchased some lettuce plants 3 weeks ago that I also put in large pots outdoors.  They are forming heads.  I'm using the spinach, snow pea greens and lettuce for salads.

I have greens that perform well in hot weather so I have salads all summer.  Sprouting broccoli, Red Malabar spinach, amaranth, New Zealand spinach, sweet mustard greens, Hilton cabbage and orach leaves thrive in the hot and humid weather and are tasty in salads.

If you want instant homegrown salads, visit your local nurseries and big box stores for ready to plant lettuce, spinach, chard, and other greens.  You get an unending harvest by taking only the leaves on the outside of the plants, leaving the inner leaves growing.

Perennial fruit options for a small space

Lemon tree on the left, fig in the center, kumquat on right

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

There are many options for growing your own fruit in small spaces today and more come on the market every year.  You grow them in pots, as part of the landscape or garden bed.

We are growing apples, goji berries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, hardy grapefruit, and lemons.  The lemon trees are growing in the house during the winter and taken outside each spring.

If you are thinking of growing perennial fruit plants, now is the time to purchase them at your neighborhood nursery or big box store.  There are many shrubs and vines that you can buy bare root and different varieties of strawberry plants and live fruit trees you can get locally as well as mail order.  My raspberry, blackberry and strawberries were purchased bare root.  My kumquat, grapefruit tree, apple tree and fig tree were purchased on-line.   The Meyer lemon tree was purchased at TSC.  One lemon tree and the goji berry bush were grown from seed.

You have 3 options with apple trees.  You can grow columnar apple trees which do great in pots (this is the kind we have), you can purchase a dwarf apple tree that you can espalier against a wall, or you can put an apple tree in your landscape.  Apple trees require full sun and either a second apple tree or crabapple tree in the neighborhood to pollinate with to get fruit.  Apples are ready to harvest in summer, fall or winter, depending on the variety.  Our “Scarlet Sentinel” columnar apple tree ripens in late September.

A fig tree is cool looking and very easy to grow either in the landscape or in a pot.  We had ours in a pot for 5 years and then put it in the ground.  It did well for 3  years.  We got great fruit from it throughout the summer.  Last year, we have a record breaking warm spell in January and then a deep freeze in February which the fig tree did not survive.  

Ripe figs

If you decide to put your fig in a pot, this will lower the zone it can survive the winter in by at least one zone.  You can always bring the fig in for the winter, either into your home or a garage.  We have a a “Chicago Hardy” fig that is hardy to Zone 6.  It can grow to a height of 25 feet if planted in the ground.

You can eat your figs fresh, dry them or make them into preserves.  Growing “exotic” figs

“Maypop” is a hardy passion flower vine that survives down to Zone 5.   It is a very hardy vine so either grow it in a pot or make sure it is blocked off from being able to expand into other areas.  They taste a lot like guavas and their flowers are beautiful.

I grew the goji berry vine from seed.  Goji berries are high in antioxidants and easy to grow.  They are self fertile so only one is needed to produce fruit.  They are a vining shrub that can grow 8-10 feet at maturity.  If you keep them in a pot, they will remain smaller.  They are hardy down to Zone 5.  My potted goji berry survived outdoors this winter.

Strawberries are another easy to grow perennial fruit.  They prefer full sun and should be planted in the spring.  There are two types of strawberries, June bearing or Everbearing.  June bearing have one large harvest in early summer whereas the everbearing types produce berries from spring through fall.  They enjoy a rich soil so plant with lots of compost and bone meal.  If they begin to decline in production after 4 years, plant new plants in a different area of the garden.
Back yard strawberries  

There are a couple of blueberries that are compact and acceptable for small landscapes, “Draper” and “Tophat.”  Draper is a bush that grows to 3-4 feet.  Tophat is a nice little bush that can easily be grown in a pot.  It grows to a mere 16-24” high.  Blueberries require an acidic soil, a pH of 4-4.5.  Blueberries are self pollinating, but you will get a lot more fruit if you plant two bushes.  You get fruit in the summer.  If you have an extra, you can easily freeze or dry.

Honeyberry is another fruiting bush and they bear in late spring/early summer, as early as two weeks prior to strawberries.  They are a blue oval type berry and is hardy in Zones 2-8.  The “Smokey Blue” reach 3-4 feet in height, making them a good candidate for a pot as well.  They are high in antioxidants and taste similar to blueberries.  Two are needed for pollination for fruiting.  No special soil type is needed, but prefer partial shade.

Strawberry

Another fruit for small spaces is kiwi and they are hardy for Zones 3-9.  These are vines that can grow to 10-20 feet.  You can use these over an harbor or on a fence.  A male and female are required.  They prefer a part sun location.  The foliage of the Artic Beauty is beautifully variegated with pink, white and green leaves.  These vines fruit in September.

For raspberry lovers, the “Shortcake” variety is a thornless dwarf that grows to a 2-3 foot mound.  It can easily be grown in a pot and is self fertile so only one plant is needed to bear fruit.  It is hardy in Zones 5-9 and fruits in mid-summer.  Both raspberries and blackberries prefer full sun.

“Doyle’s” thornless blackberry plant can be grown in a pot and can produces enormous harvests of fruit.  In the ground it can reach heights of 7 feet.  It is hardy in Zones 3-10 and bears fruit in the spring to early summer.  Another option is the dwarf red blackberry which grows to 1.5 feet in height. 

A slow growing fruit tree that reaches a height of 12-15 feet is a native to North America is the pawpaw.  It tastes tropical with a banana/mango like flavor.  It is also high in protein, vitamins and minerals and hardy to Zone 5.  The fruits weigh around a pound each and are ready to pick in late summer/early fall.  Two plants are required for the tree to bear fruit.  Foraging for wild edibles

Everything you need to know to grow potatoes

Drawing of a potato grow bag

Sunday, April 14, 2024

If you love potatoes, try growing some of the exotic varieties that are out there, like fingerling or blue potatoes.  You can find all kinds of great varieties in today's seed catalogs.  Along with the surprising number of different kinds of seed potatoes available, there are also many different ways to grow them without actually planting in the garden! Early spring is the optimal time to plant.

The potato is a native of South America and can be found in the wild from North America to Chile.  There is an amazing variety of potatoes grown in South America, many color and sizes.  The potato originated from an area in southern Peru/northwest Bolivia.  It was cultivated 7000-10000 years ago.  It took until the 1700’s for the potato to arrive in the colonies by the way of Irish immigrants.

Tubers are good source of fiber, B vitamins (B6, thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folates), vitamin C, and minerals iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, and copper.  Potato nutritional info  Most of the nutrition is in the skin.  If you want even more nutrition, try some of the wonderful colors available today.  Nutrition info for blue and yellow potatoes 

Potato plants produce tubers along the stem so the more you can build up soil around the stem, the more potatoes you will harvest.  Since most of the action of potatoes occur underground, a light, well drained soil will give the highest yield of potatoes.  Adding sand and compost can be very beneficial.   

If gardening in a small space, there are lots of options of potato growing bags on the market now.  It follows the same concept as trenching or mounding in a garden bed.  They also do well in repurposed whisky barrels.  A pot 30”deep and 20” across is best.  Fill a third with potting soil, then add soil as the vine grows.  We are growing ours in a self-built box that we will add another tier to as the vine grows.

Here is the link to the plans that my hubby used to build the below box:  Potato box video

Potato box

To give your potatoes plenty of loose, rich soil in a garden bed, dig a trench down about a foot, mix in compost, put mixed soil and compost 4" in bottom of trench and place eyes up in the trench.   Adding bone meal gives the tubers the nutrition needed to produce large potatoes.  The pH of the soil is optimal in the 5.2-6.0 range but potatoes will grow in any soil.  Plant seed potatoes 3” deep and 10-12” apart.   When the potatoes have leaves showing, add another 3-4" of soil.  Continue to add as potatoes grow until trench is filled.  If planting in hard soil, you can mound the earth, mulch or straw around the plant as it grows. 

Seed potatoes can be planted 4-6 weeks before the last frost (when the early daffodils bloom).  You can plant successively to extend the harvest until the dogwoods bloom.  You can continue to plant until May, but may only get fingerling size potatoes before the vines die back in the summer.  You can purchase seed potatoes on-line from seed companies or pick them up at your local big box store.

Early potatoes can be harvested when the first flowers appear.  Dig the potatoes when the foliage has died back in the summer.  Do not allow the baby potatoes to be exposed to sunlight.  If your potatoes turn green, do not eat them as they are poisonous.

Seed potatoes in the sun to sprout before planing

You can grow potatoes from the “eyes” of store bought potatoes.  The risk is putting any disease they may have into your soil.  Many recommend to always buy sterile seed potatoes.  To be safe, I am sticking with sterile seed potatoes for garden beds.  

If you are growing in a pot or potato growing bag, you could try using store bought eyes.  Let your potatoes age and when they start sprouting, they are ready to cut and plant.  Be sure to cut out a sprout, or "eye", to plant.  A plant will emerge from each sprouted eye.  Cut seed potatoes leaving 1-2 eyes per section.  Let cut dry overnight, then plant.

What to plant in the April edible garden

Seedlings

Saturday, April 13, 2024

April is a beautiful time of year with the leaves coming on, the grass turning green, the first flowers blooming and lots of plants poking their heads out of the ground.  There are many veggie and fruit seeds and transplants that can be put in the edible garden.  It is still too chilly for most of the summer lovers until the end of the month.  Big box stores, hardware stores, local nurseries, flea markets and farmers markets all have plants right now.  This makes it easy to get your garden going in the spring.  You can find many heirloom fruits and veggies transplants and seeds nowadays.  For the unusual plants, buying on-line from seed companies is the way to go.

In preparation for spring planting, I completed everything on my spring checklist except mulching for my garden beds to be ready for planting.  We are planning on doing this tomorrow.  Spring garden checklist

I have already started salad greens and snow peas in pots and harvesting for fresh spring salads.  What's happening in the late March edible garden

Now, I am looking for what to plant this month.  For us, the date of the last frost is April 2.  For some of the warm loving crops, this is the date that you can transplant outdoors or start your seeds outdoors.  I always look at the extended forecast to make sure we are not getting an unusual cold snap coming.  Check your seed packet for the best time to sow the seeds.  I like starting seeds in pots outdoors this time of year so they are already acclimated to the temperatures and strength of the sun.

Spring loving transplants are in your neighborhood stores that you can pick up now.  I almost always buy some lettuce and spinach transplants to get more plants to harvest from this time of year.  Veggie plants have arrived in stores!

Even though you will see summer lovers like basil, tomatoes and eggplant plants in the store, it is still quite chilly for them in April.  They do much better in the warmer temperatures that come in May. 

Starting seeds indoors is a great option too.  You can grow unusual varieties you may not find in stores.  Being inside let's you keep a very close eye on how they are doing, too.  You just need to make sure they are acclimated for the outdoors before transplanting.  "Hardening off" seedlings

Here is a list of plants and seeds you can put in the April garden: 

April-transplants or seeds into the garden or pot Zone 6/7

Amaranth

Artichoke  Growing artichokes and cardoons

Asparagus  All about asparagus
Bee balm (monarda)

Borage  Flowers that are edible

Broccoli  How to grow broccoli and cauliflower

Brussels sprouts  Growing Brussel sprouts

Cabbage  Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Catnip

Cauliflower  How to grow broccoli and cauliflower

Celeriac

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Chard  For year round steamed greens, grow chard!

Chives  Add chives to your garden
Cilantro  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Dill  

Endive

Fennel  Growing fennel

Horseradish

Kale  Grow one of the super greens this year-kale

Kohlrabi  Another spring veggie-kohlrabi

Lavender  All about lovely lavender

Leeks

Lemon balm

Lettuce  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Lovage

Mizuna  Fall and winter greens

Mustard  Mustard greens

Onions  Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em

Parsley  Self-seeding crops, plant once and forget 'em

Peas Time to plant peas!

Radicchio

Sage

Spinach  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

Strawberries  Back yard strawberries

Tarragon  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Thyme

Valerian

Any of the above can also be started indoors and then transplanted outdoors into their permanent garden  spot or pot.

April-start directly in the garden or pot

These edibles do best when started directly in their permanent spot.  Almost all root vegetable do best being directly sown (onions and leeks can be started from seed then transplanted to their permanent spot).  

Beans (snap-bush & pole) at end of April  Growing beans

Beets  All about beautiful beets

Carrots  All you need to know about growing carrots

Corn at end of April  Growing corn

Fruit bushes (bare root or potted)  Fruit for small spaces and pots

Potatoes (seed potatoes)  Time to plant potatoes, even if you only have a patio

Radishes  Easy to grow crispy, peppery radishes

Turnips  All about turnips

April-start indoors for transplanting in early May

Basil  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Cucumber  How to grow cucumbers-in pots or in the garden

Eggplant  Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Lemon verbena

Melons  Growing melons and cantaloupe

Okra  Growing and harvesting okra

Peppers  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Stevia  A sweet alternative-grow your own

Summer and winter squash  Everything you need to know to grow squash
Sweet potatoes  Growing sweet potatoes

Tomatoes  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

For tips on starting your seeds in the garden:  Outdoor seed starting tips  I also like to put a pot on our covered deck and start seeds there.  Once they are to a good size, I transplant them into their permanent pot or into the garden bed.  Vegetables you can grow in pots

For tips on seed starting: 

Indoor seed starting tips

Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

Make your own peat pots

How much to plant?

Trying to decide what to plant for this year's garden?  Here are some garden ideas:

Easy kitchen garden

A French vegetable garden you can grow in a small ...

Start a kitchen herb garden!

Pizza garden for the kids

Heirloom Sicilian kitchen garden

Mediterranean diet garden

Colonial Vegetable Garden

Veggies for small spaces

Fruit for small spaces

The First Victory Gardens 

Everything you need to know to grow onions

Potted Egyptian walking onion

Friday, April 12, 2024

The onions we cultivate in our gardens today likely originated from a wild Asian onion, but has been grown so long, the road back to the original is lost. Two thousand years ago, there were many varieties that we would recognize today. There were round onions, white onions, red onions, flat onions, long onions, keeper onions, sweet onions, spicy onions. 

Onions have been important for their perceived health benefits in times gone past and proven health benefits today as well as the fabulous taste they add to an array of dishes.  For the nutritional rundown, onion nutritional info

Onions are easy to grow, have little to no pest problems and are a perennial to boot!  They will hang out in the garden until you pull them.  Some will even multiply underground and produce "seeds" above ground.

Onions have shallow roots, like to be moist, but can’t stand being waterlogged. Continuously wet soil causes them to rot.  You should enrich the soil with plenty of organic matter before planting. As common sense would tell us, they also like loose soil that allows their bulb to expand without restriction. Organic matter helps this along. Onions can be grown in the ground or in pots. My perennial Egyptian walking onion has been growing in its pot for 10+ years.

In the Midwest, seeds can be started indoors as early as February and transplanted outdoors in March. Transplanting should be done 4-6 weeks before the last spring freeze for spring planting.  Planting later than this is also fine.

Since onions are perennials you can also plant in the fall, October for our Zone 6/7 garden. For multiplier type onions, fall planting will provide a bigger harvest next spring and summer.  

Egyptian walking onions propagate underground and through their bulblet tops they put on at least twice a year.  In our area, Our Egyptian walking onions put on their bulblets in May or June.  As soon as the bulblets turn reddish brown and have filled out, they are ready to plant.  

The more popular method of starting onions is planting “sets” that are young onions that can be put out in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked, just as the daffodils begin to fade for full size onions.  You can plant later and still get scallions or smaller bulbs.  Or leave in the ground overwinter for a bigger harvest the following year.

Bulbing onion flowering in late spring

You can place them close together and pull for scallions until the bulbing onions are 5-6” apart. As the bulb reaches full size, you can pull the soil away from the top of the onion to help the bulb and neck cure for harvest.

You can also plant the bottoms of store bought onions. If you get enough of the bottom, the onion will take root and give you an onion next season.

Onions tell you when they are ready to harvest, when half of their tops fall over. What can be easier than that? Like garlic, they should be lifted rather than pulled from the ground and leave them in shade for about a week to harden. I use a trowel to dig under the bulb and pop them out. You don’t want to knick them or they will not store well. If you do, keep them in the fridge and use them first.

Onions and garlic ready for harvesting

So, how do you choose which onions to plant? The best bet is to talk to your local nursery to see which grow the best in your area for the ones that thrive in your climate.

There are 3 types of bulbing onions-short day, intermediate day, and long day onions. Intermediate and long day varieties have been around for a long time. Short day onions are relatively newcomers.

Onions are sensitive to daylight hours. They start forming bulbs when daylight hours hit a minimum. For long day onions, it is 15 hours. For intermediate, it is 12-13 hours. Short day onions are 9-10 hours.

I would have thought long day onions would be for further south, but this is wrong. The north gets the really long summer days (think of Alaska in June with no darkness). Long day onions should be planted in states north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border (approximately 36 degrees latitude).

Long day onions are planted in states in the northern part of the US, intermediate in the middle and short in the South.

Short day onions are planted in the fall and form bulbs in the spring. Intermediate and long day onions are typically planted in the spring as sets, not seeds. Seeds require sprouting indoors and transplanting.

So, if you want a sweet onion and live in the Midwest, Vidalias are not the best bet since it is a short day type. A better choice is a Walla Walla or a Sweet Spanish.

Close up of onion flower

The other thing to keep in mind is that, like wine, onions pick up the terroir they are grown in. You can grow the exact same onion as you buy in the store or at a farmers market but have a different taste because of the differences in your soil.

There are many fun onions to grow besides the round ones. There are the flat disk like Borrettana Cipollini or the Red Baron onion that is a red scallion type onion. Of course, there is the onion made famous in French cooking, the shallot-French, Gray or Sante are well known varieties.

Then, there are onions for keeping over the winter like Rossa Di Milano, Early Yellow Globe, Sweet Sandwich, and Granex Yellow.

Onions will also keep over another year in the ground. When onions I planted last spring did not get to decent size, I left them over the winter. They gave nice bulbs the next summer.

Another type of onion is the Egyptian walking onion (pictured above in a pot). It is a perennial that you can pull year round. They do not form bulbs. They are about the size of a large scallion or leek, getting an inch or two wide and 3” long bulb. They also grow great in a pot. When they get their bulblets, they remind me of Medusa. Really cool.  You just snap off the bulblets, separate them and plant for scallions this year or more onions next year.  They also multiple underground year on year.  For more on Egyptian walking onions:  Egyptian walking onions

They are one of my must haves in the garden since they can be harvested year round. Their bulb is great as a cooking onion and their greens as a chive.

Onions are a great addition to the garden. They are perennials, easy to grow and have little to no pest problems. I really like the perennial type onions, the Egyptian walking onions and multiplier onions like potato onions. The Egyptian you can just leave in place and harvest from year round. The multiplier potato onion has a very long shelf life indoors for a storage onion. When you harvest it, just leave behind the smaller onions and they will multiply again for next year’s harvest.

Garlic on the left, newly planted onion sets on the right

This spring my Egyptian walking onions are doing great.  I planted some onion seed several weeks ago in my mini greenhouse outdoors, but am not seeing a lot of action there yet and I bought intermediate day bulbs with white, sweet and red onion sets.  These I planted a few weeks ago and are doing just fine.