GARDEN NEWS-MORE ONION CHIMES

these are what my onions looked like when we lived in texas after i harvested them and hung them up in our garage using panty hose

as we needed an onion we just cut off an onion
they would last months this way

i have tried it like this here in santa barbara but at harvest time the weather is overcast all the time and the humidity is high
when i did my onion chimes they would rot

so
now here i just harvest the onions when they are big like in the photo and process them in our food processor and freeze them in zip lock bags

we are still using onions we grew last season


when i first moved to santa barbara i was looking for onions to plant
i looked at a popular seed company from southern California
they advertised onion plants so i checked them out
when i read they would not be available for a few months i looked at the place they ordered onion plants

it was dixondale farms from south texas
the same place that many nurseries in texas get theirs
i bought mine in texas every year at a local nursery but they came originally from dixondale farms
they ship to most of the states

i order mine now direct from dixondale
its cheaper also

we order the texas early white  and 1015 texas super sweet yellow onions and creole red onions
you can look at the dixondale website at some good pictures of them
they form a nice large bulb
that is if the weather is right here in the spring

some years we have to pick them early so they wont rot
in texas it never was a problem



we prepped this bed 3 months ago by adding 4 inches of compost plus a sprinkling of an organic fertilizer
this was all forked in with a broadfork
then the bed was raked out smooth
the 3 rows of drip tape was added
then the bed was covered with straw until we were ready to plant

the plants are shipped via fedex or usps and arrive in a couple of days
we always receive them the week after thanksgiving
they are short day varieties

to plant them we raked off the straw
and planted each plant 6 inches apart
fish emulsion with seaweed was used to water them in after they were all planted

we now have 300 onions planted in this one bed


i planted 70 in my garden in this 3 ft x 7 ft bed
that concrete block in the pathway sits on top of a 5 gallon bucket with holes in the sides and bottom
i put in my food scraps in the bucket and the worms enter the holes 
i get 5 gallons of worm made compost 
i have 7 of these in my garden
they fill up twice a year

doing the math thats 70 gallons of worm made compost i make each year
sorry landfill thats your loss

in late may or early june when the bulbs get large and the stalks start falling over we will harvest them to donate to those in need

we also harvest green onions every week during the growing season to the groups we donate vegetables to by picking every other green ones

in my garden i harvest every other one as we need green onions then harvest the remaining ones when they bulb up
we then process them and freeze them for soups stews and with beans


we planted them 5 across the bed and this is what they look like now

next in few weeks we will have leeks to plant
we will plant them the same way as we do the onions

in our garden we know have growing lettuce chard peas beets onions broccoli cauliflower cabbage celery cilantro parsley dino kale curly kale and soon potatoes
we always have a few collard trees growing all year round

i hear those onion chimes ringing now

we started our year ending fundraiser for the community garden which i manage and have my garden plot
feel free to make a donation to help us reach our goal

read our story at the seedmoney.org fundraiser site for our community garden

donate.seedmoney.org/11939/trinity-gardens

the organicgreen doctor