Onions and potatoes for everyone!

Of all the garden vegetables that us non-green thumb folks can plant in the spring, potatoes and onions can make you look good! 

 

Trust me on this! Just a little plot of garden soil, a feed seed potatoes and onion sets can make even the most inept wanna-be gardener look like a pro! I use both just about every day and by mid July I've got a good supply of both that can stay in the ground until they're needed.

Earlier this year, I prepared a space of about 2 feet by four feet in on of my raised beds, making sure to have plenty of space soil off to one side of a shallow trench I made with a spade. Into this went some store bought 'seed' potatoes, at a local store, that promised to produce a red variety that was good to either bake or boil. At the same time, I purchased about a pound of onion sets that were of the white variety. The seed potatoes were cut into pieces and allow to dry for a day while the onion sets were haphazardly stuck here and there around where the potatoes were to go and which were spaced about three inches apart. This was a small investment, money wise, maybe about $2. I made sure to weed and water the bed as needed, but other than that, I didn't pay much attention to what they were doing. Before long, the potatoes sent up sprouts that flowered in May and June and then died back in July. The onion sets, likewise, grew long shoots which also died back at about the same time. Representatives of this effort can be seen in the picture above. And, while neither the onions or the potatoes were particularly large, there were to be found in abundance!

Now the question can be asked. 'Did I save any money compared to just buying a sack of potatoes and onions in the store?' Probably not. But, I do have the satisfaction of ignoring these items when I shop (every little bit you save helps) and I know with out a doubt that these vegetables are pesticide and chemical free!