Q: It seems like every week I buy onions and garlic at the store. I've never thought about growing them before, but one of my neighbors told me it's a cinch. What do you think? Can I grow them in my own yard, and will they be as good as the ones I buy at the store?'A: Home-grown onions, garlic and shallots are not only amazingly tasty, they're also really easy to grow no matter where you live! You can even plant them in the fall or early winter, when other gardening projects are sparse. And unlike most other vegetables, members of the onion family keep well in cold storage, so you can enjoy your harvest year-round! By the time we're through, you're going to wonder why you didn't think of planting them sooner!
You can plant these babies anywhere from late fall (garlic) to early spring (shallots) – or anywhere in between (onions). Keep in mind that short-day onion varieties are best for a southern climate, and long-day onions, which are more cold tolerant, are best for a northern climate.
These are plants' the basic needs:
- Lots of moisture
- Temperate climate
- Fertilizer
- Increasing daylight as they grow
- Well-drained soil.
You'll need the following: onion "sets," which are small, dry onions grown the previous year (plants will grow faster than starting from seed, although you can do it that way too); shallot or garlic cloves (you can actually just take them from heads of garlic or shallots you buy at the store); compost; fertilizer; and chalk for marking the ground
Here are the simple steps in planting:
1. The first step for all three is to rototill the soil and add compost. You may also want to use chalk to mark the area where each type of plant will go.
2. To plant all three varieties, dig a hole 1" deep. Place the onion set in the hole with the pointed end up and cover with dirt. These plants enjoy being fertilized every few weeks, but don't mulch them until they have sprouted a few inches above the ground.
3. If any of the plants start to flower, break off the buds.
4. By harvest time the plants should have grown about 2' tall; the green stalks will fall over and turn brown before they are ready to be harvested (May or June). Each segment of the stalk represents one layer of onion, garlic or shallot underground.
Sure, you can buy garlic, onions and shallots at the grocery store, but if you or someone in your house likes to cook, you'll be thrilled with the results of planting your own. And as we've seen, growing them couldn't be easier: just pop them in the ground and wait. In a few months, you'll have a great treat! And the beauty of garlic and shallots is that they'll keep on coming back, year after year!
