Onions

Yesterday, my oldest daughter, Mary, and I started prepping the onion bed. Last year, after talking to some of the farmers downtown at the local market, we found out you could put onion bulbs in during the fall, cover them with a fabric row cover, and then uncover in the spring. Last year, it worked great. The onions produced well and I had them much earlier than if I had planted them in the spring.

The reason I decided to do this is I have limited garden space. This allowed me to have my onions out of the garden by early summer. I, then, planted another crop of vegetables within the same row. This gave me two crops within one season from the same row. The onions also seemed to grow better and taste sweeter.

Here in Lexington, I bought the onion bulbs at Southern States Farm Store. It cost me $0.99 for a small bag  that would have covered several rows. I planted them about this time last year. I then covered them with a fabric row cover purchased at the same place. I anchored the cloth down with boards and let it sit. In March (when we normally plant onions here), I pulled the fabric off and let them grow. For those of you not from this area, we are in planting Zone 6.

This was an inexpensive experiment with great results. This year, I am going to try two rows because I love the taste of homegrown onions. In addition, I am going to try this with cilantro seed. I heard that it also works well with this method. Because of our hot summers, cilantro bolts quickly here in the spring.