Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Planted just ten days ago

 It's an overcast day here today with intermittent light drizzle and hardly a breeze to speak of. But the temperature is still high enough to make it a comfortable, if not slightly uninviting, day to go outside and work the veggie garden.

Having said that I still needed to go and feed the chooks and collect my one egg a day I've been getting lately (that's five chooks, one egg a day, equals four freeloaders or look at it another way. It costs me about two dollars to feed them their layer mash so I make that about two dollars per egg at the moment). So while I was out I went around and checked for any action on the seeds I've planted front and I'm pleased to announce to you the arrival (emergence) of my Hunter River Brown onions.

Planted just ten days ago and I have little baby onions popping up everywhere. There is a lot to be said for using fresh seeds.

A lot of veggies, especially slow growing veggies, don't like a lot of nitrogen in the soil so I prepared their bed by digging through some compost and aged stable horse manure, leaving out the blood and bone I usually apply as well, and boy don't the worms love this. That's about it for preparation. I planted the seeds as directed on the packet and kept the soil moist.

As they grow I'll apply fish emulsion and seaweed extract and mulch with more stable manure. Keep them moist and when the tops start to wither and brown off I'll know I'm nearly there and fresh onions are just a few weeks away.

Cheers and hoo roo

Stewart

3 comments:

Hazel said...

I have planted a lot of onions...you can never have too many onions I reckon. Thanks for the tip about feeding. Some of them I have planted in straight compost, one of the beds had a bit of blood and bone too. Time will tell. Thanks for becoming a follower on my blog, by the way.

greenfumb said...

I planted my onions in a tray and not a single one came up - seeds too old maybe. Will have another go straight into the ground with fresh seeds.

If it makes you feel any better I have 18 chooks and only getting 1-2 eggs a day. That is alot of freeloading. Time to get the hot chicken sign again!

My Veggie Garden said...

Hazel, I never new onions could taste so good until I grew my own, now there a must have/grow.

Greenfumb, yes thanks I do feel better about that but at the same time now I don't feel good about your chooks. Maybe if we get the axe and sharpening stone out and sharpen the axe in their plain view they might summon up a few more eggs.

And as for onion seed, I always buy fresh seed for each season because they loose their viability fairly quick.