They're up!

I like the color green. Makes me believe spring is coming. The onions are just now popping out of the ground, a bright, new green. Life is starting again, spring is coming. 

Take a look at picture though, something interesting to see. The pots with all the onions seedlings are "Australian Brown" an heirloom variety I saved seed in 2008. The other pots are "Alisia Craig". The seeds are from 2007. Roughly same amount of seed was planted in both pots. You shouldn't save onion seeds for more than a year. The viability just goes down the tubes. I didn't need that many of the variety so that fact doesn't bother me here. I just planted more. Its something to remember if you are depending on most of the seeds to sprout, use fresh or use lots!

Take a good look at the picture though, you'll feel better too, I think!

A ray of hope in the middle of winter

Ever get tired of winter? Yeah, I know, silly question. I find the month of February to be the worst. Enough of snow, shoveling, nose freezing, plastic on the windows, snow on the boots, driving in snowstorms, black ice, below zero temps., being cooped up............need I go on?

I have a cure for you! Or at least a little bit of spring early. Start your own plants for the garden this year. You can pick the variety you want to grow, its a lot cheaper, and its not hard. 

I started the garden season last week with planting onion seeds. I have not bought an onion from the store in 10 years. I like that. Onions from plants instead of sets work well for me. They grow bigger, keep better and you can get more varieties. I order all of my seeds from Jungs Seed. Great company and good seeds. What I forget to get there I just get locally. This year I started the Red Bull(red storage) and Ailsa Craig(spanish) onions from them. I also started American Flag leeks and some seeds I saved from Australian Browns, a yellow storage onion I got from Jungs 2 years ago.

Here is my seed starting/chicken hatching area in the basement. As you can see, I have lots of company when I am down here! 

And here are the onions. I plant them in 4" pots, potting soil/peat in bottom and seed starting mix covering them up. My chest freezer is wonderful to use as seed starting area. Cats love the dirt, so put your pots somewhere they can't get to!

They'll be up in a week and I'll feel better to boot! There is hope for spring yet.