Onions are a staple in pretty much any country’s cooking. They can be the main part of a meal, as in onion soup, or a constituent part of a salad, risotto or casserole, so it makes sense to grow your own wherever you can.
This can be done from either seed or onion sets, which are small onion bulbs that have already been started off, which you then re-plant in your own plot to mature. This is certainly the simplest way to get your crop underway, and they cost little more than seeds. We bought two nets of bulbs – one red and one white – with 60 bulbs in each net for £1.99 apiece.
Onions appreciate a rich soil, so we chose an area of the plot where we knew we had dug in compost last year. Here, we dug a 5cm (2in) deep trench, which we lined with well-rotted manure before dropping in the sets.
Each bulb should be at least 7.5cm from its neighbour to leave room for growth, and our two rows were 22cm apart. To avoid confusion at harvest time, we kept each type separate, with white bulbs to the back of the plot, and red in a row slightly forward. Each must be gently pressed into the ground before you cover them with earth, which should then be firmed down with the back of the spade. Avoid hammering it so flat that the bulbs have no chance of sprouting.
The bulbs will start to shoot in the next few weeks, growing in breadth as their tops get taller, and will be ready to harvest in mid- to late-summer.
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My onions are all rotting! And you can forget about the 30 garlic bulbs I planted, too. Where did I go wrong!