Planting the yellow globe onions was a breeze.

Watching the green shoots come up, also a breeze…

The trouble started when grass also sprouted around the green onion shoots. I could not tell them apart very well and when I tried to weed I inevitably ruined onions. So I stopped. 🙁

Combine that with a very rainy summer and the fact that birds will grab the onions right by the shoots and pull them up to eat them left me with only 15 or so ping-pong ball sized onions. The green tops have all fallen over and yellowed – which means they are done. They won’t get any larger.

Why won’t they continue to grow?? They are alive and well in there without the tops after all. There is an exchange of fluid and sugar which happens in the shoot/leaves and travels down into the bulb that makes it grow bigger.

So, onions do not like much water. Birds also like them. And the shoots look just like grass – so weed like crazy!

Plan for next year? RAISED BEDS with store-bought planting medium – this will hopefully tame the grass issue. For now they are coming indoors.