Are you able to grow artichokes here in NC???

OK, so how do you load it from the i-pad?
Nice Buddha! Nancy

Awesome sunnibel! I am starting my chokes today, and might even do Leeks today also. How big of a container are you using to grow that many?

I've got onion seedlings up, but it will be a few weeks before anything else gets planted. At least I get to see some green.

Pduck, I believe so. In fact, the further south I think they have a better chance of overwintering.

Nancyjane, you shake it until it does what you want! Or pretty close. You see where it has a little message in bold "Image File To Upload" right under "Post a Followup"? There's a little button "choose file". Tap that and you get a choice of choosing one from camera roll or taking one to use. I choose to take one, which led to some of my troubles, I think, because you "lose" the image if you don't approve of the draft that is showing it. Don't know why it insisted my image was upside down, I finally resorted to turning my iPad over and taking the photo.

Stuff, I'm actually starting them crowded because my goal is baby leeks for the restaurant plus I am banking on getting my hoop house erected in the next month or so, so I can pot them up without overburdening my lighting setup if need be. So these are in 9.5 cup rectangular Glad storage containers, holes poked in the bottom with a hot metal skewer, filled 2/3 with soil. I made a grid using hardware cloth to get a sprread of seed of about 1 seed per sq cm, which should get me through until transplant time. Many sources say to give them much more room, a few say they don't seem to mind being crowded this early any more than onions do. My onions get plenty big, so we'll give this a try. The tennisball is in there for comparison, I don't usually store it there ! :)

Jon, onions are the gardener's midwinter friend, for sure!

Sunnibel,
WOW, what is your trick for such large onions??? WOw.. nice! Are they just yellow onions?

Thank you! My trick is... Horse manure! A 1/2- 1" layer in the fall, worked in at planting time, plus a thin side dressing when the weather starts to heat up. Actually, I think the genetics of the variety also play a role, because I noticed this year while shopping for new onion seed that different types will say "medium sized" or "large" or even "extra large". Anyhow, the trick is to remember that the bulb is actually a leaf structure, not a root, and fertilize with more N to grow more leaf.

Those are a type called Talon, yellow storage onion. This year I am trying Patterson, also a yellow storage type, which may not get as large, but has thin necks that are supposed to dry down quickly, a useful trait in our humid summers. I am proud of the size of those, but I actually wouldn't mind smaller onions since I forever seem to have half an onion sitting in my fridge. Cheers!

Beautiful onions. I did not realize I was without onion seeds until I sent my yearly order a week ago, so I have only tomato, eggplant and pepper seeds, just germinated. I also have 36 peach seeds, to plant around the orchard perimeter, and two trays of sunflower shoots for immediate consumption. If you have a restaurant, Sunni, I consider the compost made with kitchen scraps and leaves the finest there is. With our limited scraps I can only produce four trash cans a year...

HI Sunnibel,

Sounds great. Keep a 1/2 onion out on the counter to catch virus and germs in the air to keep down colds, flu's etc. It has been reported to help and I can say it does in my house.. I rub everyone's hands with onions LOL! !:) No, I cook a lot with onions and so whatever helps is worth it!! Truth or not.. I will keep cooking with them and using them.. fingers crossed!! Where did you buy the seeds or sets?

Glib, I'm hoping my volunteer peach will bloom and set fruit this year, this will be its 3rd summer coming up. I've always gone back and forth on the idea of using the restaurant veg scraps, there are plenty, but I wonder how much residual pesticide there is. Also, the DH has to be the one toting the scraps back and forth... He's more and more into the garden, though, so I will tell him what you said. You can't be without onions! Maybe a trip to the local garden center can swing you some seeds, minus shipping costs?

Pduck, I always start seeds for storage and buy transplants for the sweet, short day onions (since I am in an area where I can grow both). No real reason for that, except habit. Well, and it lets me spend a couple more dollars locally on the transplants. The onions in the picture were from seed from Territorial. It's funny, the ones I start myself are much, much smaller than the ones I buy as transplants, but since they are much less shocked they catch up real fast. Cheers!

Sunni, lo and behold, right after my post I opened the door and outside there were two boxes, one from Johnny and the other from Gourmet Seeds. I am trying Ramata di Milano onion this year, from Gourmet. Ramata means copper-y, and we save each and every onion peel for winter stock (that is one kitchen scrap that never gets discarded outright). I like a bit of color in my stock. The seeds are now in the ice chest, inside a wet coffee filter inside a ziploc, at 77F. It is an italian packet, and they sure give you a lot of seeds for the money.

I doubt the pesticides are an issue. There is one herbicide that survives composting, and that tends to hurt pulses more than anything else. Anyway, even that, one more year, it is gone. If you are worried, perhaps use the compost under non-pulses the first year. My four trash cans of scraps+leaves feed my three side beds, and the asparagus, tomatoes, collards, lettuce, radicchio, chard and arugula have never suffered. The beds never get nothing else.

I posted in the Soil forum about a friend with a restaurant, he takes home every scrap, and has a big pile of leaves (now wood chips) to mix. Nutrient-wise, the stuff is better than horse manure. His soil is very sandy, and for him it matters (to have high nutrient compost).

I also started chokes a few days ago and 4 of 6 have sprouted. In addition I started my onion seeds and they have yet to pop up. I'm getting excited to get everything going! This is my second year gardening and I have learned so much in the last year, I hope to have a very successful garden this year!

Glib, aha! Full speed ahead for you with onions, then! The skins have a lot of quercitin, good for allergies, among other things. Good to know about the pesticides/herbicides. I had not had time to get around to finding out about that. Herbicides hadn't really crossed my mind. We are working on moving away from dependence on the neighbor's manure, both for self-sufficency and for getting more of our acreage into use. A combination of veggie scrap compost and green manures/mulch hays is the current nebulous plan. The neighbor keeps talking about moving, too. Anyhow our soil is sandy loam, not bad, but always perks up with a little more OM added.

Ali, good to see you back again! I'm sure this year's garden will present many successes to go with many challenges!

I have been busy planting too. In the house I have leeks, goji berry, garlic chives, lupin, and butterfly bush. My leeks are up, as are my butterfly and some of my gogi berry.

It was great reading your posts.

Nes