Last week, I pulled out almost 200 onions. All of these are in their second year. Last year was the first time I had any success growing onions. I started them in the last week of December, and didn't plant them out until May I think. In the summer of 2012, we harvested a good many small (golf-ball sized) bulbs, and put most of them in the root cellar, not to be considered until very late winter. I had decided to replant them as sets. Meanwhile, many of the smaller bulbs were overlooked in the garden and overwintered on their own.
Miraculously, or at least it seemed so to me, both the sets and the overwintered little guys sprouted like mad in the spring! Many of them grew to a decent size; at least larger than last year. The next onion issue is this: I didn't put nearly as much care into THIS year's onion seedlings, and I'll have to start the cycle all over again next year. On the good side, everything is usually easier with experience.
The garlic is ready to come out now as well. I just need enough time to process it all. I hope that I can get to it this week. We didn't keep it very well weeded this year, and a lot of the necks look soft. I guess I got too confident, or perhaps lazy.
I've got a few other garden woes at the moment, too. Every year there are tons of crops that I spend good money on seed for, plant out, tend to, and then lose control of for various reasons. Some things that I just can't get the knack of for some reason or another include carrots, broccoli, salsify, and spinach to varying degrees. I can't ever seem to tell salsify from crabgrass at a critical stage of weeding in order to give the salsify a leg-up. Carrots only get so big before their tops get chewed clean off by roving critters. Broccoli (and various other brassica friends) always get their growing tip chomped out before it matters, and I just can't seem to get the timing of spinach right. I'm thinking that I ought to just let them well enough alone for a while. There are a thousand other pursuits that I'd like to spend some of my hard-won free time doing- shooting my bow, playing guitar or tinkering with equipment, working on and driving the bug, hiking, fishing, visiting friends, any and all band-related activities, and making progress on finding a new and forever home.
I'm not sure the direction I'll take on all of this next year, and that's an awfully long way away to worry about it too much now.
