Off to a Good Start

  Despite the dense fog that was shrouding the Bayou this morning, I headed out to a bit of garden work.  I have long neglected the plot and needed to do a bit of weeding.  The warm, humid weather we are having of late supports massive growth of not only the cabbages but also the weeds.  Things were getting a bit hairy out there!  

  Just before the first of the year, a cousin had given me a whole mess of green onions.  These were the same type that Pop used to plant on the farm so I decided to save the last inch of each stalk to use as a "starter".  Last week, I finally found the time to stick forty onion sets in the garden boxes along with the root end of two celery bunches.  While it is hard for me to grow celery from seed, rooting it is quite easy and the onion sets would have no problem getting a great start.  This is sort of like "recycled gardening" as it is growing food from what most folks toss in the trash.  To my way of thinking, there is far too much waste in this world as it is, so why not recycle when I can.  It pleased me to see how well the plants were doing.  The onions, celery, cabbages, broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards and carrots are growing by leaps and bounds.  It will not be long before I am able to harvest.

  Winter gardens are so much easier than those in the spring and summer.  First, there are no gnats!  Even though I was doing close work, nary a gnat hovered around my face.  Second, the heat is not debilitating.  We had a balmy seventy degrees today making it perfect for gardening.  Third, weeds are kept at a minimum.  Other than a good bit of what Pop used to call "water grass", the gardens were relatively clean.  Also, the winter gardens are pretty much pest free.

  After about three hours of tending the gardens, all of the raised boxes are in good shape.  Tomorrow, the fog will clear and be replaced by rains.   The gardens will be good to go and I shall be stuck indoors once again.

 

And THAT is how baby onions are made! (At least in my garden!)

  My gardening is done mainly in boxes since the voles made their unwanted appearance on the hillside.  Those rascals are not helpful at all!  Sure they dig the ground until it is nice and soft but, at the same time, they nibble any roots that get in their way.  Then at night, the critters take over the garden and strip it of most everything.  The boxes help tremendously in my battle against the critters but I admit that I was not sure just how well container gardening would work for me.  I was accustomed to digging in the ground.

  This year, Mark came home with some onion sets so I designated a box just for a trial.  If this worked, I would not buy onions again!  (For those who do not know, onion sets are tiny bulbs of onions that are planted to make more.  You just "set" them in the ground and they grow!  Ok...I know.  That is not exactly why the term is used but it sounded good.)  I planted the sets and hoped for the best.  The onions grew!  Determined not to "use up" my first crop, I let them multiply instead of harvesting the bulbs.  Yesterday, I noticed that the onions were blooming.  The multiflowered heads were a gorgeous sight to someone wanting seeds.  Then I noticed that instead of seeds, there were little onion plants growing as sideshoots of the blooms.  Good deal!

  Tomorrow (weather permitting), Michael is going to build another planter box to be used as my onion garden.  The current box is too small for the amount that I wish to plant so it will be transformed into a garlic garden.  I use far less garlic than onions.  Pop always used to dry his onions by hanging them in the barn but I suppose that the tool shed or storage building will have to suffice for my drying shed.  (Michael and I decided that the greenhouse might be to damp to do much drying so I guess I will have to commandeer a shed!)

  Growing onions seems to be relatively easy and since they tend to multiply quickly, I should be able have onions year round!  One more thing to cross off the grocery list!

Poor Petunia!

I'm a lonely little Petunia in an onion patch,

an onion patch, an onion patch.

I'm a lonely little Petunia in an onion patch

and all I do is cry all day!

Boo hoo, boo hoo

Petunia blossoms from this past Summer!

I can remember my mother singing this little ditty back in the day, usually when I would be crying over something that did not amount to a hill of beans as children are prone to do at times. She would start nonchalantly singing this song and before long the tears would be dry and I would be singing along. It was a sad but amusing thought to imagine a Petunia crying. The song goes on a bit more but this was the part where I would chime in while she would be singing! Mom was one smart lady! She knew that the best way to cheer a mopey child was to divert the attention to something much happier. Perhaps that knowledge was just a thing learned by experience since I was the youngest of five children!

Lone Petunia with a die-hard Onion to the left.

Today while in the garden, I noticed that throughout the winter, a lone Petunia has been growing right next to a single onion. They both have flourished despite freezing weather. I immediately started singing the little song while Son looked at me and smiled.."I remember Grandma singing that!" Wow! That song is a memory! The petunia was from seeds handed down from Dad's garden and the onion..sprouted from an planted "top". My oldest son planted the top of a sprouting onion in a planter box that held my petunias back when he was still at home. It withstood hard freezes and hurricanes in that planter box. Two years ago, I realized the planter box had seen better days so I transplanted the onion into the garden. I did not intentionally plant the petunias in the garden but obviously some seeds were moved with the onion. These two have been growing side by side for years now and I do not have the heart to separate them. It would be almost like the parting of best friends..nope..can't do it! I am supposing that come Spring, the song's wording might have to be changed a bit, though. This past Summer, the Petunia bloomed prolifically and was covered with the tiny seed pods. If these all come up, I might be singing a different tune..something on the order of....

I'm a lonely little onion in a Petunia patch...........

Petunia blossoms!