Tree Onions and Diary

 It is time to harvest the tree onions. The net tells me they are also known as Egyptian Walking Onions, but I have never heard them called that. They have their own website in the USA.

The actual onion is a small brown onion, with a thick stem in the middle. It will never take over from other onions, but will get you out of trouble if you only want a little bit.

I put a few in from the bulblets every three months or so and use the young ones as shallots - they ARE brilliant for that. With the tops just like chives. And just for the fun of growing them - kids love them, as they never fail and come up quite quickly.

 

I was originally told to grow them from bulblets one year, and offsets the next, to keep them viable. However I have been growing them just from bulblets now for about ten years, and they seem pretty good to me.

There are still a few growing in other spots in the garden that have not bulbed-up yet, but this is my main crop for the year.

Here comes the serious bit - I do have a few to share around, but you will need to e-mail me to check their availability and get my address, and then send me a prepaid 500gm plastic post bag (available from the post office, fits into an envelopes with a 60c stamp), with your name and address on the front. I will send back offsets and some tops, depending on what is left.

My e-mail is kapana[at]netspace.net.au  This is the only way I will pass them on - no 500 gm pre-paid plastic bag, no onions.

Except I am looking for potato onions - will swop.

Diary:

5 Jan - cold and wet, with high winds. Ate the very last frozen tommies from last year, and the first real apple cucumber. I am growing some cukes and some tomatoes in ornamental towers I had for Hoyas (above). They don't really work for the Hoyas quite as well as a tepee of three stakes. Long story.

6 Jan - wet, windy and sleety. Put in four Lebanese Zucchini (three in a bag, one in a pot), and ripped out the experimental out-of-season Broad Beans. Experiment failed.

Purchased three garbage bins for vat watering.The sight of drowned birds in the previous unlidded vats was heart-breaking. Beloved said it didn't matter too much, as they were Minahs. Imagine if they had been the New Holland Honeyeaters. It still hurt. And the lids will solve the problem of mozzies breeding in there. I do like the vats for watering - just grab a can out and apply water exactly where it is needed.

7 Jan - It is overcast, and I have run out of Zucchinis. :(