Dutch = My bunching onions that I didn't pick this spring are just now coming out of dormancy. They should start to divide pretty soon and by early next spring I will split the bunches up and transplant them. I may not start any from seed this winter.

Hi Jack,

Just back from a trip down to see my sister in Iowa. They are ready to start combining the first beans down in that country, almost anyway. It rained at times in buckets the last 140 miles home; so boy was I glad to pull up to the house.

My bunching onions neither bulbed nor went dormant this summer and are still as much as almost waist high. I planted a few Guardians late, but they are still hairs; so they may not do much next year. What are now sprouting for me are the walking onions.

I am still getting peppers and tomatoes; so bed prep for the garlics is still waiting for space to come available.

Hi back at ya Dutch!

Sounds like a fun drive! It's been as dry as the desert down here for most of the summer. Tough on both the garden and the gardener's wallet! Tomatoes and peppers are winding down but I've got several fall things growing like sprouts, broccoli, radishes, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes.

I'm waiting until early November to plant my garlic this year after this season's dismal harvest. I picked up some Music for seed at a farmer's market and may go back there in a couple weeks when they said that they would have a Silverskin for sale. Never tried those before here. I still have enough German White, Spanish Roja, and Chesnok Red for seed and eating. My garlic is following one of the tomato beds this year which will give me plenty of time to amend it before planting. I'm only putting in a little over 100 total.

My peppers are still going strong, as are the tomaotes, especially the 4th of July; they never quit all summer. Plenty of rain here, although I did some watering.

Back in NW Iowa it has been real wet. Check out the pictures of the train derailment this summer where 30 some oil cars (raw Canadian Alberta crude) derailed and spilled just outside of Doon Iowa. The Little Rock River washed out the grade! and usually the Little Rock is small enough to jump across or as we would say back home a "crik" and not a very big one. There are pictures showing how wide the flood of that crik was. It was more than I could believe!

That spill was bad enough to endanger the Sioux City water supply and even marginally threaten Omaha's.

Rain has been all over the scale all over the country. What I got caught in yesterday was a front that rapidly swept across the Dakotas and then down across all of Minnesota and was not supposed to hit the Twin Cities until Thursday, but blew up days early, moved right up the Minneosta River corridor and may not depart until much later as well. No sunshine today for sure.

I intend to plant my Japanese (AKA Sakura) and the Turban Maiskij that I got from Southern Exposure earlier in October and the rest toward the middle. They sent me three huge bulbs of the Turban that should yield maybe 30 cloves and a bag full of potato onions (those I will hold until next spring). Excellent measure and shipped in plenty of time, too.

BTW the Japanese never sends up huge tops and almost never sends up a real scape for me either, but it normally produces reasonable bulbs with very large cloves. Year in year out it ranks pretty close to my favorite, Music, for me.

My biggest bunching onions are starting to split into offshoots, but none of them went dormant this year. I will leave them in place and see what makes it through the winter. Nice bunch of new walkers coming up now, too.