Summertime and the Living is HOT!

By Dennis on June 14, 2010

Right now  we are experiencing one of those hot dry spells for which the south is famous!  The heat is in the 90’s and the humidity is in the 60-85% range leaving us with heat indices over 100.  Right now, I believe my heat index is 108.

It is not only making me miserable, my plants are showing the effects, too.  So, this week I thought I would share some tips on gardening in this climate.

1. It all starts in the spring.  Choose native varieties of plants that are already conditioned for your climate.  Trying to grow cool season plants in near tropical conditions will never end well.  Work with nature, not against it.  If you give in to a particular flower or vegetable just because it looks good in the magazine, you may coax it into surviving, but it will take you far more effort and water than you may have anticipated.

2. It all starts in the spring, part two.  Gardeners are always tempted to water heavily.  The rule of thumb is 1 inch of water per week.  However, once your plants are established, let the soil dry out a few times in between waterings in the cool of the spring.  This will encourage the roots to reach down deeper.  If you don’t do this and you are always giving the plants abundant moisture, the root systems will be shallow and the plants will be far more susceptible to drought stress when the upper two inches of soil dry out.

3. Mulch.  Applying mulch to your garden will do two things, it will help keeps weeds from out-competing your plants for needed moisture.  Secondly, it will help to keep the moisture that is present from evaporating as quickly.  Simply apply the mulch to within  four inches of the base of the plant.  In vegetable gardens, apply the mulch in between rows.

I learned the hard way this season not to mulch all the way up to the plant stem.  My county agent informed me that doing this keeps the soil too moist and helps it serve host to a wide variety of bacteria and fungal problems.  Of my 44 tomato plants I lost 16 due to soil borne pathogens resulting from my soil being too wet, too close to the stem.

4. When you do water, water deeply.  Most plants need approximately 1 inch of water per week.  If you don’t know how much that is,  simply scatter some empty tuna cans around your gardens and begin watering.  When the cans are full, you have watered approximately 1 inch.

5.  All plants are not created equally.  In your flower beds, cactus and other succulents can easily be overwatered. They actually prefer it hot and a bit on the dry side.  In the garden, okra and peppers are the same, while tomatoes and melons are heavy feeders and require abundant moisture.  With this in mind, water your plants in blocks rather than all at once so that similar plants receive adequate moisture.

6. Water in the morning, when possible.  The temperatures and conditions are most favorable for watering either in the morning or at night when evaporation loss will be lowered (good for your plants, better for your budget).  However, if you water at night and the plants do not have time to dry out, you will create a great breeding ground for bacteria and fungus that will ultimately be harmful.

7. Use Monty’s foliar fertilizers. Monty’s formulas are low in salts and will not cause additional crops injury or burn, even during the hot summer months.  Plus, the additional nutrients can help your plants better deal with stresses related to heat and drought.

8. Finally, your plants are not the only things that need water.  Keep yourself hydrated while you are working in the sun. Drink at least 8 extra ounces for each hour you are working (and sorry, beer and sodas don’t count..they actually will work as diuretic and further compound the problem).

If you have any tips, leave us a comment.  We’d love to hear from you and to see pics of your gardening success. Post them below.

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Monty’s Rose Care Calendar for the Month of June

By Dennis on June 9, 2010

Below are rose care tips from Monty’s namesake and the creator of Monty’s Original Formula, Monty Justice, for the month of June. These tips are based on growth zone 6 and you should adjust the timing for your specific region and conditions.

1. It makes good sense to enjoy the rose blooms in your garden rather than cutting long stems and foliage.  

A rule of thumb:  don’t remove over 20% of the stem and foliage at the end of the first bloom cycle.  

2. Dead head remaining spent blooms:  snap each bloom off without taking stems or leaves. Rose plants, at the end of the first bloom period, need as many of the leaves left on the plant to replace the energy expended in the initial growth and to provide more stems and blooms in the next cycle.  

3. Apply Epsom salts, 2 tablespoons per plant broadcast on the ground beneath each plant.  Epsom salts, which is made of magnesium sulfate makes calcium and potassium available to be taken up by plant roots.  The leaves will stay green to the base and will provide increased energy from the sun.  

4. Pulling off the lower leaves 4-6″ from the ground will minimize blackspot, mite damage and initiate new basil growth.  

5.  Apply a 2″ woody mulch to keep the ground temperature cool, soil from caking and minimize weeding.  

6. Continue spray program for insects and disease.  Always water the leaves and soil with thoroughly before applying pesticides. This will help to open up the stomata of the plant and the pores on the leaf surface so that more of the pesticide can be taken in.

7. Using Monty’s 8-16-8 will help encourage new growth, and help produce large foliage so that the plant can maintain higher energy for the next bloom cycle and for continued growth and vitality.

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White Clover, White Clover Let the Nightmare Be Over

By Dennis on June 2, 2010

This summer I have watched as white clover has taken over lawns across my region.  It has been like a rapidly advancing army of white Lilliputians bent on landscape domination.  I even sprayed some this spring hoping to fight back.  I did have some early success, but the stuff came back with a vengeance.  So I did some homework on the plant and this is what I learned.

First, white clover is your lawns way of saying, “Help!”  White Clover is a legume and as with all legumes it is capable of pulling nitrogen from the air and ‘fixing’ it or attaching it to its root system.  This Nitrogen is then available for the plant to use, but some of it gets broken down and added back to the soil.  In nature, white clover and other Nitrogen fixating plants move in when there is a shortage.  It is part of the whole miracle and awe of nature and a way to keep things balanced. Nature is using the clover to provide needed Nitrogen.

That said, the best way to control clover long term is to do a soil test and make sure that your lawn has everything it needs.  A good fall application of 19-19-19 fertilizer will have time to break down and get fully assimilated in the fall and winter months and reduce your problems next year.  By applying in the fall, you can also help insure that the application of nitrogen will not burn your lawn, and that you have adequate moisture to help the nutrient break down.

In the short term, you can use a broadleaf herbicide like 2,4-D, dicamba, and MCPP/MCPA.  A few words about these products: they are a broadleaf herbicide and will kill or injure almost any broadleaf plant. The good news is that they are safe for most lawns, the bad news is they can wreak havoc on flowers, shrubs, and trees.  Spot treat rather than broadcast, keep your sprayer nozzle to more of a stream or drip and keep it as close to the ground as possible to prevent drift to plants you like. Use when you know temperatures will remain below 85 degrees as excessive heat will reduce effectiveness and could volatize the chemical (convert it from a liquid to a gas).  Once it is volatized not only will you be watching the money you paid float into the air, but it can resettle on nearby plants and cause damage without you ever knowing it happened until it is too late.  I have seen an entire commercial tomato farm taken out by volatized 2,4-D.  The farm next to it was a beef operation; the farm sprayed his pasture for weeds.  However, the product volatized, drifted, and settled on the tomatoes; within a week every plant the tomato grower had was dead. So be careful and read and follow label direction.

If you are using 2,4-D I also recommend using a new product from Monty’s called NanoBoost.  It is will increase the effectiveness of 2,4-D and glyphosate based herbicides by helping more of these products get into the weed.  Learn more here.

Here are some brief tips on controlling white clover:

  1. Do a soil test.  Check for pH levels and Nitrogen levels
  2. Apply needed nitrogen in the fall.
  3. Spot treat clover patches with 2,4-D or other herbicide. Follow all label directions
  4. Herbicide treatments will be most effective in the fall, though summer applications can be made if temperatures will be below 85 degrees.
  5. Apply herbicides and fertilizers when the lawn is well-watered and not stressed as they will take in more of the products.
  6. Fertilizer regularly and encourage a good stand of healthy grasses.  Clover tends to move in to fill voids.

Editor’s Note:  I know that there is a growing group of proponents of ‘clover lawns’ who are anti-herbicides and pro-clover.  The above will be an anathema to them.  I believe in working with native grasses as much as possible which is why I am letting the bermuda take over what once was a fescue lawn. But I just personally can’t abide the clover invasion.

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Is Gardening Really Worth it?

By Dennis on May 17, 2010

That seems like an odd question to be asking here on a gardening and plant blog.  But I am an accidental gardener and a full-time marketing and communications person. So, ultimately, every question in my career comes down to an ROI, or return on investment, question.  You know, the stuff they teach in Business 101 classes; things like state your goals, make sure they are measurable, blah blah blah.  So, with that as my filter and with summer produce starting to appear in the grocery store at sale prices, I started wondering, “Is all this really worth it?”

First, as a primer, I recommend you check out these web stories.  The first from Purdue University then there is this one from our friends over at MSN.  Both come to this conclusion, it depends.

I must say that I would agree.  Some vegetables, from a purely economic standpoint, just are not worth the time and investment.  Once you account for your time, the equipment necessary, the land that could be used for something else (opportunity cost, thank you Adam Smith), etc., it can be hard to break-even on a modest size garden.  As you move to a larger garden and if you have family members to help you, then you can get some economies of scale but the costs can still be rather high for some fixed inputs like seed.

Here are some things to consider:

  • A good tool is worth it’s cost.  Don’t settle for cheap tools.  Buy quality, Buy Once.  I, myself, have opted to only add to my tool collection a little at a time.  My first year I only bought what I absolutely had to have.  A shovel, hoe, rake, two hand tools, and two garden hoses (later that fall after learning the need for one, I splurged for a wheel-barrow after an unexpected windfall left me with an extra $75 in my pocket.  It was ‘found money’ and i would have used it on Dr. Peppers, or i-tunes anyway…I figured this was a better use.)  By buying nicer tools, I am relatively assured that they will be here for several seasons and will perform as desired, hold their edge, and not break down. Y0u can get some really good heirloom quality hand tools here. (after three seasons, I have zero complaints).  I am still hoping to be able to splurge for a tiller in the near future from craigslist but so far I have not found what I am looking for at a cost that seems reasonable for a tool I would use a handful of times throughout the year.
  • When figuring your costs, some things can be spread over several seasons.  Garden hoses for example (each of mine were contractor grade and cost between $25 and $30) will not be used up after one season.  If taken care of, they should last for at least 5 seasons so my real cost is only $5-6 per year.  My wheel barrow was almost $75 dollars but I expect to use it more than a decade so again my costs will avg less than $10 per season.
  • Your consumable inputs – things you use, use up, then have to replace – are the real budget busters so look to save wherever you can.  If possible buy seeds rather than plants, buy seeds in bulk rather than pre-packaged, shop on-line or from catalogue centers.  I also highly recommend one in particular, Berlin Seeds in Berlin, Ohio.  They are Amish, so don’t expect to e-mail them an order or have online shopping capabilities.  But their catalogues are wonderful and their quality is very high.  Plus their integrity above impeachment.  Call and ask to be put on their mailing list @ 1-877-464-0892. The catalogues are not only full of seeds, bulbs, etc., but also have loads of gardening tips passed down from generations of Amish families and farmers. Finally, look for natural remedies with household products for controlling weeds and insects.
  • Improving your soil should be looked at as a process, not a quick fix.  Sure, you can do the quick fix thing, but it will be VERY expensive.  Compost and manures are availble for free if you are willing to do your homework. Monty’s Liquid Carbon can also help expedite the process.  Work with your county extension agent to do a soil test, and to find out what plants perform well in your area.  Some plants, or some varieties of plants, just won’t grow in your climate/soil.  Start by working with what nature gives you and amend your garden to your needs a section at a time.

Here are the break-outs of some costs  I have incurred while getting my gardening lifestyle up and going.

  • Hoses (3)                           $  25.00 ea
  • Seed packets                    $    1.29 each
  • Seed (bulk)                       $     1-3 per pound  1/4 to 1/2 pound has been more than enough for anything I have grown.
  • Hoe                                     $  19.00  Local Hardware store
  • Rake                                   $  22.00 Local Hardware store
  • Hand-tools                      $ 7-21.00 plus shipping from Wilcox All Pro Tools
  • Wheel Barrow                $ 72.00    From Local farmer’s Co-op
  • Compost and manure $ FREE     worked with county gov. and some local farmers. All it cost me was time.
  • Chemicals                        $ 24.00 qt.   I use these very sparingly, and mainly for weed control in spring or fall. Once I have crops in the garden I hand weed.  Insect control,  I use household products, hand remove slugs, beetles and eggs and pray alot.
  • Water                                 $   3.00 per month – This is about the difference in my water bill once my garden is in.  I make sure my garden receives at least 1 inch of moisture per week.  I would rather pay for a little bit of water and make sure I get to harvest a crop.  For example, last season, my neighbor who is an old-timer and firmly believes that God will send all the water that the plants need and he “ain’t about to waste money watering no plants” got about 1/3rd – 1/2 less produce last summer than I did, even though his garden, by all rights, looks better than mine.
  • Fertilizer              $  75.00 per season.  I use Monty’s three formulas exclusively and the quart bottles are more than enough to get me through the season. Even though I spoon feed them at least twice a week.
  • Pump Sprayers  $10-25   I own two.  The first one cost me almost $25  last season and nothing goes in it but herbicides.  I strongly believe in segregating between ‘death chemicals’ – herbicides etc… and ‘life chemicals’ – my liquid fertilizers and soil conditioners.  This season, though, when I bought my second sprayer the price had fallen dramatically to only $10.00 for the same size/same brand/same store.

In season, it may be hard to feel like it makes financial sense to garden, after all produce is coming in from producers who have economies of scale and can sale things more cheaply than you can raise them.  BUT, keep an eye on the savings in the fall and winter because that is when you savings will really add up.  For example, this year at Christmas all of our side dishes came from our own garden.  Tomatoes and onions that were near two dollars a pound and kinda mealy at the store were fresh, ‘free,’ and as close as my pantry and freezer.  Ditto that for my daughter’s recent birthday.  Plus, there is a sense of pride that overwhelms you when you sit down to fresh frozen okra at supper while the snow is piling up outside.

Now, I realize that this has reduced things to a mere economic question and there are myriad other reasons like health, quality, accessibility, exercise, and sheer enjoyment that are hard to quantify.  But if you garden smart, and grow slowly, you can make gardening worth it, not only for the food you receive but for the pleasure and the satisfaction of a job well done.

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Uh-Oh Oregano!

By Dennis on May 13, 2010

Okay, so my first failure of the season.  I transplanted some oregano and now, it is dead.  Everything I had heard about this plant was that it was easy to transplant, easy to grow.  So, I didn’t put much thought into it; I just planted it.  Now, it’s dead.  I have planted some German Thyme in it’s place and will try again this weekend.  After I did my research.

Here is what I learned.  First, the main species of oregano that most people are familiar with is Greek Oregeno, the other more pungent variety is Mexican Oregano.  However, the names should tell us something.  They are used to growing in poor soils, in full sun, and in fairly dry conditions.

I over-watered mine apparently.

A few more tips about oregano. 

  • Pinch off any flowers to allow the plant to ‘bush out’ more and to keep it from bolting. 
  • Harvesting before flowers have a chance to develop will also provide a more ‘oregano-y tasting plant (is that a word..probably not, but you get the idea). 
  • Also, the stems can get very woody, so strip the leaves by running your fingers from the top of the stem down toward the base and removing them from the main stem.  Discard the stem.  Not a lot of flavor there.
  • Since you are looking to produce moderate growth, and you do not want to encourage flowering, a bi-weekly feeding of Monty’s 4-15-12 should be enough to sustain these plants.

If you want to know more, check out this site.

Btw, if you have some success tips for growing oregano or other herbs, please reply back/comment and let us know.  I would enjoy learning from you and I am sure it would be a help to others in our blogging community.

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“They like us; they really like us!”

By Dennis on May 5, 2010

With my apologies to Sally Fields, I had to borrow her quote.  We are on facebook now.  You can go here, and ‘like’ us.  It is the same thing as the old ‘fan’ designation, but FB had to change it up for some reason.  So, come on over.  Sit down and have a chat with us across our virtual garden fence.  We’ll keep you updated on where we are going, what we are doing, and post stories, links and other fun bits of gardening news. 

It’s just one more way to Join Our Growing Community

C ya there!

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Monty’s Rose Care Calender – Month of May

By Dennis on May 5, 2010

May:  When the purplish-red leaves have turned green and the buds are pea sized, mix your pesticide of choice according to label directions.  

Add the following ingredients to each gallon of insecticide solution:  

  • (1) one tablespoon epsom salts
  • (1) one tablespoon apple cider vinegar,
  • 1/2 teaspoon (.08 ounces or 3ml) Monty’s  orange label (2-15-15)

 Make sure leaves are sprayed from the underneath side as well as the top.  Always add Monty’s when water is applied to your roses.  

 As temperatures warm into the mid 80 degrees watch for spider mites.  These critters crawl from the ground up the stems of roses onto the underside of leaves and suck the chlorophyll out of the leaves.  It is essential for the vigor of your roses to have healthy green leaves.  Mites do not like water.  So using a hose and sprayer nozzle wash through the leaves, particularly from the bottom up of your rose plants twice weekly.  This is another good time to feed your roses through the leaves by adding Monty’s Liquid Plant Food.

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More Uses for Grass Clippings

By Dennis on May 1, 2010

Short entry today.  Storms are moving in this evening and I have a lot of work to do.  Weather man says we are expecting 4+ inches of rain.  We’ll see.

Anyway, mowing season is in full swing and I have found another use for grass clippings.  My son and I are using them to create paths so we can walk through our garden, even after a rain, without bogging down in this god-forsaken E. Tennessee clay.  Additionally we are using it around the tomatoes to help suppress weeds.

One word of caution that I learned the hard way last season.  DO NOT try this if you have a Bermuda grass lawn and your grass has formed seed heads.  The seeds will germinate and you will spend the rest of the summer fighting to keep Bermuda grass out of your garden.

The benefit of using the grass clippings like this is that it does give us the paths and the weed barriers that I am looking for with the added benefits that I can till it in in the fall to add organic structure into the soil, plus unlike using bark mulch, which is expensive and semi-permanent, I can reconfigure the layout of my garden each season so that I can easily rotate my crops to keep disease and insects in check.

Happy gardening.  I’m back to work.

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Reduce, Reuse, Retire

By Dennis on April 30, 2010

I am undertaking three experiments this year in an effort to not only garden well, but garden sustainably, easily and in a way that helps out the environment.

I have long been intrigued by the concept of square foot gardening ever since I first heard about it while doing a news story in my former position as a Farm Broadcaster (agricultural journalist for radio…you know those guys who wake you up in the morning with pork belly prices and news about farm conditions). 

The benefits of square foot gardening are manifold.  You can produce more with less space, weeding in the raised beds is easier, if even necessary, and you have more control over the environment in which your plants are growing.

My problems with the system number exactly 2.  Number one, philosophically I am a cheapskate.  One of the reasons I garden is to save money on produce.  So spending money on the lumber or railroad ties to build the frames ran my cost per plot up and lowered my ROI.  Number 2, I am a REALLY bad carpenter.  I did not trust myself to build the frames to begin with and the thoughts of piles of mis-cut, mis-measured, mis-constructed piles of lumber and the awkward looking, almost-square frames did not thrill me.

So I have created my own concept for square foot gardening made easy and cheap.  The local tire dealer in my small East TN town had piles of old worn out tires just sitting around.  I knew these were bound for the local dump at some point and would add to the environmental problem.  So, I called him up and asked how much he would charge for some of the ‘junk’ tires.  He told me I could have all I was willing to haul away, for free! 

Never one to shirk at anything that is free, I loaded up two dozen tires (I am getting more this weekend) and returned home.  Once home, I mixed compost and top soil 50/50 in a wheel barrow then misted the mixture with Monty’s Liquid Carbon to improve its organic structure further.

I arranged my tires in three locations for three distinct experiments, the first is my “tire-farm” on the edge of my traditional garden, the second is a ‘kitchen garden’ just outside my back door so my wife can have ready access to them, and the third is my “Tater Towers” out in the garden area.  I will show pictures of each and describe the process below.

First, let me say that each wheel barrow took about 7 shovel-fulls of dirt and 7 of compost to fill.  Once filled, mixed and treated, each barrow-full of my created dirt is enough to fill two tires.  I fill the tires, including the area inside each tire till it is just about flush with the rim.  This new soil mixture is far richer and looser than my native East TN clay and makes a better growing medium without having to overhaul my entire garden. 

One benefit of using these tire gardens is that the black of the tire attracts early spring sun and acts as a heat sink, warming the soil quickly.  The plants in my tires are germinating much faster than those in the actual garden. The soil also drains better than the heavy clay in the garden.  The two factors are a benefit, but also a cause for caution; you will need to water more frequently.

“Tater Towers”

I have planted my potatoes in tires (four seed potatoes per tire) and I may thin them later as needed. As I planted them, I soaked them overnight in Monty’s Liquid Carbon and Monty’s 4-15-12. They have emerged and are looking good.  My next step will be to place another tire on top of the existing one and filling it again with the soil/compost mixture.  Each time the plant is covered, it will send it through a stress which will cause it to send out more lateral roots, each one of these laterals will start producing more potatoes.  The plant then, in an efort to reach the sunlight, will continue growing toward the top of the new tire in the stack. By the time I am done layering the tires, I will have four feet tall towers that should be full of potatoes at each level.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  So far, things are looking good.

The Kitchen Garden

My wife and I both love to cook.  I prefer to use as many fresh ingredients as I can and having them at the ready will be convenient throughout the summer.  In order to accomplish this, I have arranged a row of tires just off of our back porch and have filled them with my soil mixture as described above, then planted onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley and other goodies bound for sauces, spice racks, and fresh salads. 

The tomatoes, because they are heavy feeders, and due their mature size  have been planted one plant per tire.

The onions are planted intentionally too thick, so that I can thin them for green onions while letting some of the bulbs mature to full size.  As this planting plays out, I will plant more throughout the season.

The herbs are planted two varieties per tire to make the most of my space.  Again, I will keep you posted, but the ‘crops’  have been planted for one-two weeks and are all looking good.

The Tire Farm

One section of my garden , toward the back and out of the way in case it fails miserably :-), I have dubbed my “Tire Farm”  I have groups of four tires arranged by crop.  Again, these are filled with my dirt mixture as described above.  Although I am not, I suppose you could use just a straight potting mix or regular top soil. So far I have planted broccoli, lettuce (leaf), spinach, carrots, and watermelon with others to be seeded as time and weather permit. 

This was my first year to plant carrots and I had no idea those little seeds were so small.  I eventually gave up trying to separate out the little buggers and just scattered seeded them then covered them with a layer of compost.  They have germinated well, but I am going to have to thin them heavily.  The other crops have all starting germinating this week after being in the ground about 7 days.

As with all of my seeds, I soak them in a solution of Monty’s seed starter and Monty’s Liquid Carbon.

Again, with words and pictures I will let you know how my experiments work throughout this season.

Enjoy, and write/post back any stories you may have or recommendations for successfully gardening in square foot style.  I would enjoy hearing your stories of success and difficulty. Plus, the other readers might benefit as well.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to the results, knowing that I have taken something bound for the dump, that will not break down in my lifetime, and found a useful new purpose for it; one that will benefit my family and the environment (and save me some money.)  Who knows, if all goes well, I may expand.  I have already threatened my wife with an entire garden full of tires next season.

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New way of planting onions, They are up and looking good.

By Dennis on April 30, 2010

After only marginal success with my onions last year, I decided to try something different this year.  So far, so good. 

For those of you following this blog, you know I harvested some free compost this winter. My soil here is extremely heavy clay (more on that in another post), but my onions just would not develop fully in the tight soil.  So this season I (okay, honest moment, mainly my protesting son) scraped up some of the better top soil from unused corners of the garden and mixed this 50/50 in a wheel barrow to create a lighter, more organically rich type of soil.

Once this was accomplished I (another honest moment, my daughter, pulled back the soil about 1 foot wide by 75 feet long on the south facing side of my garden.  I put this strip on the south so that my corn, okra, beans, and tomatoes would not block the sun from my ground dwellers.  This strip is serving as the home to my onions and cucumbers this year.

As the dirt work was being done, I soaked my onions sets in a mixture of 1 tsp of Monty’s 4-15-12 and 1 TBSP Monty’s Liquid Carbon in 16 ounces of water. (I did this for both my white and yellow onions. 

Once the soil was pulled back, I (okay, this time it was me) dug one inch deep holes in the earth spaced 1 inch apart in all directions in a grid about 1 foot by one foot.  Then I placed my onion sets in the indentations.  Once they were in place, I covered them with 3-4 inches of my newly created soil/compost mix.  Two weeks later they are up and looking good.

Without having to fight through the hard East Tennesee clay, the onions are emerging early.

For those of you who grow onion regularly, you will know that onions spaced only 1 inch apart will not develop fully as the bulbs will crowd each other.  However, my plans are to make my first harvest in about two weeks.  This will give us some good, early spring onions, or green onions, and leave those remaining with the space they will need to develop into good sized bulbs.

If you are doing the math, you know that my 2 onions patches must look awfully lonely in a 72 foot row.  Indeed, they do.  But my plans are to plant similar subsequent patches every three weeks into early/mid June so that I will have a continuous harvest of fresh onions this season.

Keep checking back and I will keep you posted on how this experiment is working, but so far, so good.

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