Following my last post on almost time to plant onions, which I wrote in late March, read it here, there was something of a time delay with a very cold April. However, with the arrival of May, we've also seen the arrival of warmer frost free nights. Wonderful.
With this in mind, I had an hour or two to spare during the week and used it wisely by planting my onion sets.
I outlined the method I use for the bed preparation a couple of years ago, see it here, and it essentially involves putting down newspaper over the existing soil, to suppress weeds (at least for a time), then use some lovely fresh compost and topsoil to create a bed two to three inches in depth. This year I used an organic peat free compost, by a company called 'Klassman', mixed with some nice sieved topsoil. I normally add in a couple of handfuls of fish, blood and bonemeal just for good measure.
A thorough watering at this point is highly recommended.
Once the bed is in place it's the fun part, planting time. In this scenario I'm planting each plant about 3 inches apart in rows, again 3 inches apart. Again, another good watering to finish the job. As I mentioned before, I'm growing from sets, and after giving these a head start by starting them undercover,they are now well hardened off and delighted to be planted.
I have to say, the final result is pleasing to the eye, and with some look and a little heat, we'll be harvesting lovely onions in no time, have a look at this monster I grew a couple of years ago here.
Happy gardening.
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