Tra la, tra la, some of the Egyptian Walking Onions from the community garden have made "pups" and I have some planted in my garden at home now!
You may recall, a nice gardener invited me to harvest both pups and big onions to get them started in my garden. I "traded" a big lemongrass clump for them. I also got a Jerusalem artichoke to plant from the deal! Made out like a bandit, as they say!
The pups of these unusual onions are tiny bulblets that grow atop the flowering stalk. They start growing right on the mother plant, and even start making roots. The weight of the developing pups causes the stalk to arch over eventually, and they then anchor themselves in the soil and in this way "walk" aross the garden, gaining about a foot each time. The bulblets ask, "Mother, May I?" take a giant step forward? "Yes, you may."
Each pup can be broken off from the top cluster and planted, and will make an onion plant.
Goin' to seed...ha ha me and the plants both.
The plot above in the community garden belongs to a REAL gardener. She is letting the Egyptian Onions make their bulblets and also letting her radish, I think, make seed. She has baby radish to eat in another plot.I am fussing, fussing, fussing over my little courtyard. Some of the new plants were not happy in their places, so I did some switching around. It will be another month before everything hits its stride, I think, and soon I must rig up some shade cloth to shield them from the desert sun. And to think, some in northern climes are still waiting for their weather to warm up and plants to awaken!
Yesterday I drove hubby to see a little manmade pond on the campus of his alma mater, NMSU. This was put in after we moved from here the first time, so I did not even know it existed until I saw it on a Google map. There were a few ducks, too! And some anglers. Evidently they stock it with trout.
Olde Dame Holly
I've heard of the walking Onions, but not grown them. I never did well with growing ordinary onions in our last home and probably won't bother here. We have Garlic in and growing well though, and spuds started, and various veg seedlings. Still packets and packets of stuff tostart but the spring has been SO cold - snow in parts of the country even in May! Not lasting too long although Cumbria and Yorkshire would disagree. Now we have the Polytunnel up we stand a chance, but can't put things "out" yet.
ReplyDeleteYou made out like a bandit and did not have to steal any of those plants. Merry Needle, how your garden grows!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of walking onions, but you got some lovely plants in exchange for the lemongrass. What a great deal to watch them grow like that, Holly.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's still cold here, even though I put a few plants out yesterday. I just hope they grow and don't die from the cold.
Sounds like you and your husband had a great time at his alma mater.
My onions are just starting to form the top bulblets, so I don't know if they have any pink or not yet. It seems we get a warm sunny wiiiiindyyyy day or two and then back to cool. We had frost Saturday morning and will probably have a couple more this week. Oh well, our last frost date is May 15, so I shouldn't be too disappointed or surprised.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting onion story. We can learn so much from each other on the blogs. Thanks for this, I had no idea.
ReplyDeleteThe pond sounds lovely, Holly. Glad you got a chance to go there and visit. Those ducks are sweet. I think anything with water attracts the birds. I just went to the creek and there were so many different birds flying about. I didn't realize you like gardening so much. That's wonderful. The Jerusalem artichoke sounds interesting. Your post title caught my eye today, cause I used to love that song. ; )
ReplyDeleteHave a splendid week, Holly.
~Sheri
I enjoyed learning about the Egyptian onions! It must be challenging to grow things in the desert. Or up here in the northern hinterlands, ha ha. Keep up the good gardening!
ReplyDeleteThe salads you'll be making make me hungry. Of course casseroles and soups and stew will be enhanced with the fresh flavor too.
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard to grow plants in a desert.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of energy to work in the garden!
A friend gave me a bunch of those onions and boy do they spread! you have to be on top of it. the pond sounds lovely. I did buy some annuals today but still a bit cold to put them in the ground yet.
ReplyDeleteCathy
Your post are always so educational. Thanks for all you share!
ReplyDeleteEgyptian Walking Onions sound very interesting. How nice that a fellow gardener gave you some 'starts'. I planted onion sets about a month ago and soon I'll start using the onion greens. That's why I grow them. Every time I buy a bunch of onion greens at the market I only use a few and the rest go all wilted and unusable. So I grow my own. We had very mixed up weather today. It was warm and sunny then clouds moved in and it got so chilly.
ReplyDeleteAre you able to eat these onions? Very unusual. Janice
ReplyDeleteIndeed! They are also called "Perennial Onions" because they are perennially ready. Tops and bulbs! They have a real good smell but I have not eaten any yet.
DeleteI love reading about your gardening. Do you get to have your garden plot year around? If you do, I think that is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI have eaten Jerusalem artichokes, I like them.