Gardening: The Real New Years Day

To the average citizen, the New Year begins with a turn of the calendar, a glass of champagne, fireworks or a kiss. To a gardener (well, this gardener, anyway), it begins at the start of the growing season. For me, today was that day.

I got some trays of starter soil ready, pulled out my bags of disorganized seeds from previous years, added this years seeds, and pulled out all the things I needed to start. In this case, I need to start onions, leeks, parsely, butterfly weed* and yarrow.

I have been getting better and better with onions each year. I usually do medium to large yellow storage onions. This year, I decided to expand my planting to grow red onions and leeks. Last year, I had great results with my relatively small planting (100ish plants) of Pontiac onions. They were a medium-large onion, uniform in size, that lasted from Aug. to Nov. before we used them up. There were only a handful of small ones despite weeding neglect and none went soft or started to turn black.

I decided to try to have a repeat performance with Pontiac. In addition, I selected Red Bull (a red storage onion) and King Richard leeks. I got one packet each with 250 seed per packet. They have a 75-85% germination rate and I usually get a third of them are too runty to plant. That means I should get 133 red, 133 yellow, and 133 leeks. If I had more space, I would probably plant 5-10 times as many yellow, and twice as many red. But, I work with what I have.

Planting is simple. I filled an open flat 2/3 full of seed starter mix. I made straight rows, 1/2" deep, 1" apart. I wasn't too particular with where the rows start or end with the onions. I made sure to only do complete rows of leeks. I marked them, and covered the flat with plastic. I ended up with 7 rows of onions (finished with some leftover seed from 2 years ago) and 2 full rows of leeks.

Tomorrow, I'll get the parsely, yarrow, and butterfly weed seeds in the dirt. Next week, I might start some spinach, lettuce and peas to put in a cold frame. I usually start both of those too late, so I'd like to get a jump on them this year. 

* - Butterfly weed (aka Pleurisy root or Orange milkweed) is a pipe dream for me. Every year, I try to grow it. Every year, it fails to germinate, dies at transplant, or, in my most successful year, doesn't flower and dies in the Winter. Still, I have hope.