Every spring, all the big box stores are loaded up with all you could want for your spring and summer garden. They are over flowing with bulbs and flowers and asparagus crowns and seed potatoes and onion sets. They have overflowing shelves of grape, raspberry, and blackberry vines, blueberry bushes, fruit trees and TONS of veggie and herb starts. After winter, we are more than eager to get out there, get our hands dirty, and feel the warmth of the sun. We dream of counters full of fresh produce from our gardens and fantasize about all the canning we will do.

Summer comes. It’s hot. There’s bugs. There’s weeds. Maybe parts of our gardens didn’t go as planned. Pests, disease, and low yields have us frustrated but we have other huge successes and pantry shelves full of home canned veggies and jams and mason jars filled with ferments and dehydrated goodies. Freezers stocked full of vacuum sealed produce. We’ve spent countless evenings washing and chopping and dicing and preparing canning jars. We’ve worked our butts off ya’ll! We are sunburned and tired.

Fall arrives and you could take a break. You could rip out that summer garden, put it to bed and just sit back. You could and that would be ok. BUT you would be missing out on so much!  Unless you live in some of the coldest regions, there is a huge opportunity to make that garden work for you even longer! Many of those things you planted for your spring garden can be planted again for the fall!

For some reason, those big box stores don’t seem to show the same enthusiasm for fall gardening as they do in the spring. Those same shelves that were overflowing in the spring now look more like an afterthought. A few racks of brassicas and no more seed packets to be found… maybe a little rack with some flower bulbs for spring. They have to make room for those giant Halloween and Christmas inflatables!

So skip those stores and head to a local nursery (that’s where you ought to be spending your dollars anyway!) Yes, they will be full of pumpkins and mums, but you’re going to find all that you need for a great fall garden as well!

I stopped in a local (ok it’s still kind of a hike from where I live) nursery in VA beach the other day and got a truckload of dirt to fill raised beds I just made and am getting ready for spring when I saw tons of onion sets!

Onion sets are just small onion bulbs about the size of a large marble that were grown from seed in the previous season. Onion sets provide the easiest way to grow full sized onions.
Onion sets are easily found in the spring at every nursery including those big box stores but you don’t always see them for fall gardening.
I grabbed a bunch of yellow and red onion sets and headed home to find a row to plant them in!

Planting Onions

You can plant onions just about any time of year especially if you are growing for green onions but I plant mine around the same time as the garlic.
Prepare your soil by making sure its loose and weed free. Amend your soil with compost and/or your fertilizer of choice. I sprinkle in some blood and bone meal just like I do the garlic and plant 4-6 inches apart to give them room to grow into big onions. This takes about 14 weeks for spring planting but will take a bit longer for fall planting. Bury them only 1-2 inches deep, pointy end up, and mulch them lightly with straw, pine straw, fallen leaves, etc. This will help them hold in moisture, insulate them from the cold, and help prevent weeds.
Now you can sit back and wait. Onions are on their way.

Long Day and Short Day Onions
You may have heard the term ‘long day’ and ‘short day’ onions before. Which do I get? Onions are sensitive to the amount of daylight they get. Different varieties of onions have been bred for different parts of the country. The farther north you live, the longer the days are in the summer. If you draw an imaginary line between North and South Carolina across the country to San Francisco and you fall above that line, go ahead and plant long day onions. Plant short day onions if you fall below that line. If you’re right on that line, you may be able to get away with either. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Day-Neutral Did you know there was such thing?

There are also varieties that grow well regardless of the day length. These varieties are sometimes referred to as Indeterminate.

Which Onions varieties keep well?

Yellow, white, and Red Onions are your best keeper varieties. They have a lower water content than sweeter varieties and a higher sulfur content (that’s the stuff that gets you cryin’ when you’re cuttin’)
These varieties store well long term but don’t limit yourself to only these varieties! If you choose to grow onions that don’t store well long term, simply use those first before using your keeper onions or don’t plant as many. 

Most storage onions can keep at least 8 months but can last up to a year in the right conditions. Keep them dry, out of light, and away from potatoes. Potatoes and onions each emit a gas that makes the other go bad faster. Also keep the onions out of the fridge. Inspect the onions regularly and pull out any that are starting to get soft or go bad. One bad onion will start to spoil the rest pretty quickly.

Now go plant some onions and…
Happy Homesteading!