Starting the Spring Kitchen Garden

Today I had very high hopes of getting my entire Spring garden planted. I had gotten a good start on it Saturday. At the Lane County Farmer's Market, I picked up my onion plants...and a few extras! My plan was to purchase one six-pack tray each of the two varieties that I grew last year. So, at the Hayhurst stand I bought:

"Red Bull" - 114 days. Large Red Bulbs. Uniform bulb size with nice red color throughout the interior rings. Storage Onion. Adaptation 43-65 degrees latitude

"Frontier" - 95-100 days An early hybrid long-day onion.Frontier has excellent size and uniformity and under optimum conditions can be stored until April. Skins are excellent, dark golden in color and necks are small.

But then I saw a few other varieties that were calling my name! And part of the fun of gardening for me is trying new things, whether that means new types of vegetables or new varieties. So into my basket went:

"Camelot" 110 days. Dark red shallot from seed with an excellent flavor. Red skin contrasts nicely with white interior. Uniform, tear-drop shaped bulbs could store through the Winter until April. Adaptability 40-55 degrees latitude

"Candy"  110 days. Sweet, mild onion. Slightly flattened yellow onion has potential for large size. A Walla-Walla type for growing father South. 

In the afternoon on Saturday we went to Lane Forest Products and picked up one scoop of Nature's Best. Then I worked and created a long raised bed parallel to the garlic row. So, I was sure that I would be able to build my other beds on Sunday and get everything planted. Wrong! I am afraid that Mother Nature had other ideas. It seemed to rain all day with just a few 1/2 hour breaks scattered about. So each time the skies lightened up, I headed back outdoors. All I was able to accomplish was planting the "Candy" & the "Frontier" onions.

Here's a trio of young "Candy" onions.

And here is my section of "Frontier".  After I got the row completely planted, I put up 5 metal hoops and covered the onions with a layer of remay fabric. This will keep the plants a little bit warmer but more importantly to me, it will prevent the little birds from nipping and eating at the onions. Once the plants are well established, I will remove the remay cover for the rest of the Summer. So, while I don't have the whole Spring garden in, I do have a good start. Next weekend I will plant my other onions and sew a quick crop of radish as well.