Garden Season 2011!

So you may be thinking its too early for gardening, but no!, it is just the right time to start your onion seeds indoors. This year, Lily and I have picked a wonderful variety of flower and vegetable plants to put in our garden. We ordered most of our seeds from Johnny’s Select Seeds (JSS) so that we could get unusual varieties that can’t be found in local nurseries.

Our first seeding this year is onions. We are planting two varieties, Yellow Granex and Pumba. In my research over the winter, I learned that the Yellow Granex is a sweet onion, that when grown in Vidalia, Georgia, becomes the popular “Vidalia Onion.” Not sure what they will call the Yellow Granex we grow out back.....Johnson City Onion doesn’t quite have the same cache. Pumba is a variety from JSS that grows well in the south and does better in storage than the Yellow Granex. Onions have a longer growing cycle than most vegetables, which is why we are starting them so early. The other alternative to growing onions is to “over winter” them, meaning you plant them in the fall for an early summer harvest. Uncle Kevin is currently experimenting with this technique.

Finally, Lily and I have to thank you Uncle Jonathan for his Christmas present, “The Vegetable Gardner’s Bible”….it has contributed a great deal to the fun we have lined up for this summer!