How To Grow Onions And Leeks

Are you interested in finding out how to grow onions and leeks in your vegetable garden? If so, you're in the right place, as we've got a helpful article for you today on doing just that!

Onions and leeks are part of the allium family of plants, along with garlic and chives.  They grow upward from a bulb and are mostly quite simple to grow. They are also great for fitting into a small space because of their upright growth.

To grow onions and leeks successfully you will need a relatively sunny site that is well drained. If your soil tends more to clay, you can still grow them but you will need to dig some grit into the soil first to help with the drainage.

How To Grow Onions

Freshly harvested golden sweet onions. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To grow onions you can either start from seeds or from immature onions that are supplied as small dried bulbs known as "sets." If you start from seeds, germinate them in a seed tray first and pick the strongest looking specimens to plant out.

Do not add manure or other fertilizers that are heavy in nitrogen. Onions do not like very nitrogenous or acid soil. They will rot if too wet, and unless the weather is very dry, they do not require much watering.

It is possible to grow onions all year round if you have good drainage. You can plant once in the spring and again in early fall. There is no advantage in harvesting them when they are small. Leave them until the leaves begin to die off and turn yellow.

To harvest, dig them up with the leaves intact and let them dry for a couple of weeks until the leaves are completely dried. You can then tie them by the leaves or hang them in nets to store. Most onions store well, but those with thick necks should be used first.

Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How To Grow Leeks

Leeks like a little more fertilizer than onions. Dig the fertilizer or compost well into the bed and allow a couple of weeks before planting. Leeks also require more water than onions.

Most gardeners grow leeks from seed planted directly into the bed in spring. Spread the seed in rows with about a foot between rows. Thin out the seedlings so that you have a row of plants about 6 inches apart. Be careful when weeding at this stage, because leek seedlings look a lot like grass!

Different varieties of leeks require different growing times so you can spread your harvest by mixing the varieties in your garden. You will probably want some if not all of them to be winter harvesting leeks, which can be ready at a time when your garden is not producing many other vegetables.

Both onions and leeks will suffer if they are surrounded by weeds. They do not have a very strong root system and are easily overwhelmed by competition. Therefore, be sure to weed around them frequently.

To grow onions and leeks successfully year after year, be sure to rotate them to different places in the garden. This will help to protect them from the fungal diseases that they can suffer from.

Plants of the allium family are good for repelling pests that do not like the strong smell, so you can often help other vegetable plants if you grow onions and leeks or garlic around them in a companion planting.

How To Plant Tomatoes

It's almost tomato planting season! In some areas, you may be able to put tomatoes outside right now. Here in Central Ohio, Mother's Day is the traditional date, but my seedlings are growing nicely in the window in preparation for moving outdoors. So today I'm sharing some tips on how to plant tomatoes, America's most popular home-grown crop - and possibly my favorite!

It is wonderful to be able to eat and serve your own succulent tomatoes from the garden.  They have a sweet and rich flavor that store-bought tomatoes almost always lack. However, they are not always as simple to grow as you might expect.

How To Plant Tomatoes Outdoors

Cherry tomatoes.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tomatoes are a climbing plant. You can grow them either in containers or in the ground, but they need to have a trellis or other support to climb.

They also like warmth and plenty of direct sunlight. They will grow in most parts of the USA from zone 3 and in the UK and Europe, but in cooler climates you should choose a suitable variety and be sure to plan a sheltered, sunny spot for them. Do not plant them outside until you are sure that there will be no more frost. Planting in containers has the advantage that you can easily move them into a greenhouse or into the house at night, if cold weather threatens.

It is possible to grow tomatoes from seed, but most people start with small plants from the nursery. Check plants carefully for any signs of disease. If you see any, go to a different nursery.

Soil pH should be from 6.0 to 7.0. You can check this with a soil testing kit from any nursery. If your soil tests outside of this range, either add product to alter its acidity level or plant your tomatoes in containers in compost of the right pH.

If planting in the ground, dig plenty of tomato compost into your soil, then dig a hole about a foot diameter for each plant. The holes should be 12 to 18 inches apart according to the variety of tomato (the label should instruct you on this). 

Put in the bottom of each hole a little compost followed by broken eggshells or calcium product from the nursery. Set the plants into the holes and fill with compost. It's fine to cover the lower branches of the growing plant, but at least 3-4 branches should be above ground.

Water them, then place a paper collar around the stalk at ground level to deter crawling pests, and cover with a cloche if your climate is cool. After a couple of weeks remove the cloche and collar, cover the soil with a layer of mulch and set up whatever supports your plant variety needs.

Tomato plants love water and need 1-2 inches of rain per week. If you get less than this, be sure to water them often.

State fruit - Tomato (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How To Plant Tomatoes Indoors

Tomatoes can also be grown inside the house in containers, but they need lots of direct sunlight so you will need to position them carefully. They should get at least 6 hours of sunlight per day in order to grow well and produce good fruit.

Additional Tips On Planting Tomatoes

If you are growing tomatoes in the ground, be sure to rotate them to different parts of the garden each year. They are very prone to disease and moving them around will help to stop the common tomato diseases from becoming established.

For the same reason, if you are growing them in containers it is best to discard the compost and clean the container, as well as burning the remains of the plant, at the end of each season.

Warning: although tomato fruits are safe to eat, other parts of the plant can be poisonous. Protect from young children and pets.

Good luck with your tomato plants. I hope you have a bountiful and delicious crop!

Video: Container Gardening with Succulents

This short video offers some great tips for choosing and planting succulents in containers. From selecting the correct pot based on your climate, to choosing succulents that will grow outdoors or indoors, Tricia shares some helpful ways to have success with your succulent container garden.

The books that she recommends are listed below the video for your convenience.

Growing Succulents
Learn how to grow succulents in containers, indoors or outdoors. More info in our blog post http://groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/make-your-own-s...


Recommended Resources for Growing Succulents:
   

Choosing Healthy Plants for Your Garden

Whether you are buying or receiving plants from someone there are a few things that you need to look at before deciding to plant them in your garden.

You will generally get a better quality plant from a garden center and it will be less likely to have disease or other problems that could spread to other plants in your garden. But there is still the possibility that the garden center plant might not be the healthy specimen that you might expect so you should still check it out before parting with your money.

Image via Flickr

The first thing you need to do is look at the plant and see whether it looks healthy. This might seem very obvious but we often assume that buying from a garden center will assure us of a healthy plant when in actual fact even garden centers can have problem plants and you don't want to be the new owner of their problems.

Plants are very good at showing any signs of distress so if a plant doesn't look healthy, it generally isn't.

Check the conditions of the leaves, stems and roots of the plant where possible. You should also look at the condition of the soil that it has been growing in, as this will have had an effect on its health.

If you are buying flowering plants it is always best to buy the ones that have yet to flower, as they will withstand the trauma of transport and transplanting better than those that already have flowers. If there is no alternative but to buy or receive plants that already have flowers then many people suggest that you should remove all the flowers to give the plant a better chance of survival.

While you might be reluctant to do so, you will probably have a better plant that will be stronger and healthier and produce more flowers in the future.

If there is anything on the plant that concerns you, seek advice or decide against having that plant in your garden.

Tips On Planting Your New Garden

Good morning!

Today, we are going to get down to planting and organizing your garden, so grab your tools, and let’s get started!

Now you’ve picked out what type of garden you will have, where it will be located, and what plants you will be growing, you can really get started in creating your garden environment, and planting your seeds! (See previous post on choosing seeds.)  There are several items you will want to address in this process.

First, you’ll want to select what your garden barriers or borders will be. What will separate your garden from the rest of the world? Next you’ll want to select the types of support needed for your plants. Often some kind of mesh, stakes, or other supports are necessary to keep your plant upright. You will also want to plan how much soil and fertilizer to buy, and how to arrange all the plants in your garden.

Borders
Choosing a border can be a fairly important step in getting your garden started. While it might not actually affect the health of the plants, many people enjoy a garden that is aesthetically pleasing, as well as functional. Metal, wood, brick, or stone can be used as attractive edging and border materials — that choice is yours, depending on what you want your garden to look like.

Red tulip in my spring garden.

Supports
Finding something nice-looking to support your plants can be a little bit more challenging. Sometimes a short pole can work well, but often for larger and heavier plants, such as tomatoes, you will need a wire mesh for it to pull itself up on. You can find these at almost any gardening store, usually pre-shaped in a sort of conical shape well suited for plants. The plant will then grow up through it, and you can tie the branches to the cross spokes with twine if they need more support.

Buying Soil
If your soil is poor, you may want to buy some soil and/or compost to add in, but the goal should be to build up your own soil over time, so that it will be able to support a garden without adding too much from outside sources. (Some people try to solve the problem of poor soil by loading up their plants with every type of chemical and fertilizer known to man. This usually works to some degree, but to me it seems kind of unnatural to rely on man made materials to keep your plants alive. Also, as a sustainable gardener, and especially if I’m growing vegetables, I don’t feel very comfortable eating something that is full of chemicals!)

If you must add outside soil, try to find a source of organically certified soil, so you are not adding toxins to your new garden right off the bat. (Scott’s makes an organic topsoil mix, and for a good organic fertilizer, try Rainbow Grow Mix.)

We will cover making your own compost in a blog post coming up shortly, so be sure to check back!

Tulips along my garden fence.

Plant Placement
Arranging the plants can also be important to the success of your garden. I’m not talking about some kind of feng-shui thing, but depending on your watering, some plants might hog all the water and leave the other plants high and dry. Some plants have longer roots than others, and are more aggressive at seeking water. If you place one of these plants next to a plant with weaker, shorter roots, it will promptly hijack the water supply for itself, and can choke out the other plant.

Climate Considerations
Many gardeners live in areas where virtually anything can grow effortlessly. Just plant some seeds and water them for a few weeks, and you’ve got a beautifully lush garden. But if you live somewhere like Colorado, or other northerly climes, you’ll understand what its like to have a limited selection of plants that will grow naturally. It can be rather a challenge to facilitate the growth of a large variety of plants, especially when the very world you live in seems to be rooting against you.

This can be an important consideration, and one method that can work well in these situations is to create a “microclimate” for each type of plant. This is when you regulate the sunlight, shade, moisture, and wind factors for each separate plant. It sounds like a challenge, and it is. But you can regulate these factors in such a way that the plant feels just like it is in the ideal growing conditions. This can be achieved by the use of wind barriers, shading umbrellas, extra water, or different types or amounts of compost. This is fairly time consuming, but can be very rewarding if done right, and in some climates, it can be the best option.

I can’t explain every phase of this process, because everyone’s goals, climate, and setups are slightly different. But you can do research on every plant that you would like to have in your garden. Find out everything you can about the zone that it flourishes in, and ask yourself how you can emulate that zone within your own backyard. In most cases, you can take control of the environment and recreate whatever you wish. Ordinarily all it takes is some preparation and strategy. (If you try to find plants that will grow well in your area in the first place, though, that is the most sustainable option.)

In our next post, we will discuss watering techniques, and a couple of other important items, before wrapping up this series with a bonus lesson on that all-important topic — composting!

See you next time, and happy gardening!
Rose.