We popped over for a quick mini-visit to the community garden yesterday afternoon. I wanted to bring some kitchen scraps to add to the compost bin on our way to have lunch and run errands. We left the container at the garden with a mind to return to pick it up on our way back home and do more garden inspection.
It’s only been a few weeks since my first trip of the season to the garden and already so much has grown. Before going on I should state for the record that the reason growth is so quick in my garden is because I never, ever leave it empty. I grow a lot of edible perennials like herbs, flowers, garlic, fruit, and onions that take up residence in the plot year-round, holding down the soil and preventing erosion. It also means that even in a cold climate like Toronto we manage to get very early and very late season crops.
But I digress. Just look at the growth in just nine days! Some of the peas I planted around the trellis have emerged at least a few inches above the soil line. The gooseberry bush I planted early last fall has full leaves and lots of teeny tiny flower buds. We’re going to have a pretty reasonable first gooseberry harvest this summer!
And speaking of harvests, I made my first real harvest of the season yesterday. I took home clippings from a variety of perennial herbs (garlic chives, marjoram, oregano, sage, and thyme) in addition to handfuls of onions. Looking at a photo of the full community plot (actually the sage section is cut off) you can see that there are an awful lot of onions (some are garlic too). They are always one of the first edibles to come up in the spring and one of the last harvested in the late fall. Most of the onions are ‘Egyptian Walking’ onions (aka “Egyptian Clumping’ onions) a type that come up very early and reproduce by developing a topset of bulbs later in the season. Their name is derived from their unique growth habit; the heavy topsets literally fall over and take root in the soil, giving the impression that the onions are creeping about and reproducing themselves throughout the garden. I like to control their placement slightly by collecting the topsets in the summer, tossing them into bare spots as I harvest mature plants throughout the season. They are a particularly rich-flavored onion, reminiscent of garlic. You can eat the topsets as well as replant them, their taste even more like garlic than the mature bulbs.
‘Egyptian Walking’ onions with topsets.
We get a continuous harvest of onions throughout the growing season through this perpetual reproduction but, I’ve been itching to grow some varieties that produce larger bulbs. I bought seeds for a variety called ‘Red Torpedo’ for this purpose but was seduced by the possibility of an even earlier harvest when I came upon a bin of red onion sets for sale later yesterday afternoon. This is why I can’t make solid garden plans — I am too easily swayed to make impulsive decisions! You should see the purple fingerling potatoes I impulse-bought for planting from the local organic produce store only a few minutes prior to my run-in with the onion sets.
Red onion sets waiting to be planted.
And so I bought a handful of red onion sets of unknown origin, which I took back and planted at the community garden. I had no plan for their placement so I basically pulled out a few bunches of mature ‘Egyptian Walking’ onions and replaced them with the new sets. They say the rough and tough cultivation of onion sets make them more prone to disease and a little risky to grow, but I figure the ‘Egyptian Walking’ onions can handle it and I kept them a bit of a distance away from the others to be safe.
I left the garden with my bundle of onions in hand and an overwhelming sense of pride knowing I will be supplementing our meals with them over the coming week. It was quite a shock to realize that this sense of pride doesn’t diminish with time. I’ve been growing food for quite some time now, you’d think it would become a commonplace part of my life but instead every new harvest, especially the first one of the year, is filled with that original sense of amazement and awe. I’m so glad the growing season is back in full swing!
i’ve only just begun the adventure in gardening in the last few years and i am glad that it still feels exciting for you year after year. i mean, really, how could it not?…it’s just so stinkin’ amazing!
We had some strawberry plants that overwintered here in our garden in San Francisco, and just got our first 2 ripe berries. They weren’t even very sweet, but still I felt so happy eating from my own garden. As you said, it was such a sense of amazement and awe.
i love the photo of the egyptian walking onion topset.
I’m going to have to try egyptian walking onions.
My radish seeds came up yesterday! No harvest, but it is my first outdoor growth at my new place. They look like little green butterflies hovering above the ground.
Quant: I often show this photo when I give presentations because the ‘Egyptian Walking onions are so pretty when they are making topsets… strange alien tentacled creatures….
Alan: Strawberries already! We have to wait until June/July here in Toronto.
KatieL: Every year in the garden is another opportunity to try something new so it is definitely always exciting. And spring is a time of optimism and adventure. The shock is really that I would still feel such pride and amazement that I can grow some onions!
Janie: I like your description. My little butterlies are also emerging from the soil.
We Just sold bunches of Organic radishes at Holders. I brought 4 home to put into the salad today. I didnt get any early, cool crops in, in my personal garden this year, but next year, Watch out!
I like the description of those onions. I am going to find a source for those, because I am a garlic eating fool.
They sound yummy!
We Just sold bunches of Organic radishes at Holders. I brought 4 home to put into the salad today. I didnt get any early, cool crops in, in my personal garden this year, but next year, Watch out!
I like the description of those onions. I am going to find a source for those, because I am a garlic eating fool.
They sound yummy!
We Just sold bunches of Organic radishes at Holders. I brought 4 home to put into the salad today. I didnt get any early, cool crops in, in my personal garden this year, but next year, Watch out!
I like the description of those onions. I am going to find a source for those, because I am a garlic eating fool.
They sound yummy!
I dont know how my post appeared 3 times. I would delete two of them if I could.
Sorry about that.
I just bought some Egyptian Walking Onions at a plant sale this past weekend, I’m very excited about them and can’t wait to see the topsets!
I’m glad growing season is back too.
Planted some Little Mavel Pea`s in the early part of April. in 5 long trays on the balcony. They have grown to about 2in maybe 50 have popped, i dont think they mind being crowded. The wife suggested to do the Sugar Baby Watermelon on the Baclony after the Peas.We are worried about planting them in our rental plot the racoons might give us a problem. Our Community Garden is not open till later this month i cant wait.
We’ve got strawberries from last year growing in our garden here in Northern California, too and eating them for breakfast this week was quite possibly the best thing ever. (Even though, really, they weren’t that sweet.) But wow! What a feeling! It’s like learning how to drive, or potty training my kids, or successfully having a simple conversation with someone in a foreign language. One small step for my breakfast, one giant step for my rental garden!
This is my first year planting seeds and I am so glad to find folks just as thrilled with the tiniest miracle of seedlings poping up through the soil. Trying to figure out how to post my photos. Thank you for this great site!!!
This is my third season gardening and I still have such joy in it. I LOVE seeing little sproutlings popping their heads out of the dirt. I love the way things seem to grow in a major way after a lightening storm and I love to go out and pick something for our meals. There is such a satisfaction in knowing that I took part in feeding my family. Not by making whatever but by growing it. It’s like a big pleasant sigh on a Saturday morning. Like snuggling up in a comfy chair with a blanket and some yarn.
I want to thank you for “You Grow Girl” book. I can not put it down! I also understand things that before I just never “got”. Because of this blog (rather new to me) and your book I no longer feel like I need to have more space. More acreage to do what I wanted. I want to live here in the city on my large city lot and garden. I have such a vision for this place. I also rented a spot at the community garden just so I can get out and garden with others and hope to glean some knowledge from those that have been going at it so much longer than I have.
Well, after reading this post and comments, I feel like I’ve just been at a spring garden party. Sadly, there are no other balcony gardeners in my condominium complex so I appreciate coming here and getting a boost from your enthusiasm. Oh, what a feeling! To nurture spring seedlings.