Note 3: FLOWERBEDS AND PHARAOHS - onions in the garden
The love of onions still persists and there’s probably not a day that passes without this humble vegetable becoming part of our diet in one way or another. Historically it has played an important role for millenia. The ancient Egyptians used to bury their dead surrounded in onions, the many layers representing heaven, hell, and the earth. Ancient Greek athletes would eat large quantities of the vegetables, drinking the raw juice, while massaging their bodies with the cut onion.
Jump forward to the present day and my use of the vegetable is perhaps a little more conventional with onions added to many everyday meals. Although I purchase a large proportion from the supermarket, I still enjoy growing a number of varieties.
This year it’s back to old favourites white ‘Sturon’ and red ‘Retano’. Both are grown from sets, which are small immature bulbs, often heat treated to prevent the plant from going to seed by kiling off the dormant flower bud within. I’ve planted the sets just below the surface with their ‘noses’ just poking through the soil. With the possibility of predation by rooks or inquisitive blackbirds, I’ve covered the area with a mesh previously used to protect young trees.
Garlic started off in cells just before Christmas has done well and as can be seen from the picture they have put on plenty of growth. I’d heard good things about ‘Sultop’, the variety here which promises a good strong flavour, and decent sized bulbs. The stems can be used while fresh, with the chefs in the hotel I once worked at always very excited at the prospect of a tray of ‘green’ or ‘wet’ garlic as it is sometimes known.
Onions can be grown from seeds as well as sets and at the same hotel I grew ‘Cipolla borettana’, a small flat Italian onion that you often see in jars preserved in balsamic vinegar with a price tag that makes you look twice. ‘Cuisse de Poulet’ was another variety that I grew very successfully from seed. A long shallot-like bulb with a wonderfully mild flavour, it’s said to be one of the few onions that you can eat raw like an apple. I never tried.
I took advantage of some mild weather this week to plant out ornamental onions too. ‘Purple Sensation’ bulbs went into the borders while Allium schubertii went into pots and troughs. This Allium is the ‘firework’ of the onion world with flowers shooting out on purple stems from a central globe. It’s a low grower but one that won’t go unnoticed. Even seasoned gardeners still get a thrill from growing it.
