Today we planted eight sets of yellow onions. That's about five hundred plants. Each onion has to be gently pulled from a tangled mass of tiny roots. Each shoot is then spaced approximately four inches apart, planted and covered. Afterwards, I learn that onions are an early-plant crop, that they thrive in cool weather. I also learn that they will grow into green onions if kept planted in a tight pack. And now that our onions are planted in a four inch grid, I have also learned that they don't compete well with weeds. Urgh!
Debbie spends the better part of the day raking out a new section of the garden, which is where we decide to bed down the onions for the summer. While Deb rakes the top stones off of a 70 x 20 area, I start planting the onions. "There must be a better way to do this," I moan, trying to envision the machinery that big onion producers use to supply the world.
At the same time, we're becoming aware, if not appreciative of the people who toil at these tasks... but with no alternative. We talked a little bit about the farmers we saw in Nicaragua, armed with steel rakes and shovels, transporting their crops to market in wooden horse carts.
Earlier in the day, I find my stone hammer, and so now I can shape the stones a little better. I actually like building the walls better than planting the onions. The garden is taking shape, and still the priority is to get crop into the ground, keep it healthy, and deal with aesthetics when possible.
By 7:00 PM, we're both exhausted, and as Debbie plants the last onion, I plant two packs of Nasturtium seeds along the perimeter of the little walls that are already in place.
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