Initially, I bought three packets of onion seeds and two packets of overwintering onions that were planted in the fall together with the garlic. But two of three seeds did not germinate at all and the germination rate of the third one was abysmal. I bought further two packets of seeds and those had high germination rates, but they were still tiny and I was not very confident they would grow much. Thus I ordered several further sets of onions. It was difficult to estimate how much to order since they are sold by weight, not by number. I decided to go for four onion sets and one shallot set á 250 g.

To make it quick and easy to plant them in my favorite triangle pattern, I made a thingamajig to mark six holes at once. First I used it to scratch three parallel divots in the soil and then I poked in and wriggled it about a bit to mark the holes.

It worked like a charm, I was planting onions like no bee’s knees. I planted all the onions in a 10×10 cm pattern, and the shallots in 20×20 cm pattern.

I also continued to pick stones that got in the way while planting. Even after working on this soil for over half a century, sometimes even sieving portions of it, I still reliably got half a bucket full of stones.

And here you can see the pile of stones behind my garden shed, with the broken bathroom sink for size comparison. All this is from picking stones from the vegetable patches over the last year. Last summer, I used up almost all the stones on this pile to repair my walkway. Now it looks like I did not touch it and it is likely to continue growing until the next time I find a use for them.

With the onions firmly planted in the ground, I lightly brushed the soil over them with a broom. Onions are not supposed to be planted deep so this should suffice.

There still may come late frost but I decided to plant the onion seedlings too since they were getting in the way and on my nerves. I overcrowded those since I will not be trying to grow them into big bulbs – if they survive, they will probably be used mostly green.

I delineated my onion patches with willow twigs and watered them thoroughly. As you can see, they take up a lot of space. Twice as much as I wanted them to in fact. The sets contained a lot of tiny onions, and as can be seen in the picture, one variety even contained a lot more than the other three (ca 30% more) despite them all having the same weight. If they all survive and grow, I could end up with more onions than I can reasonably need and I will have to try to trade some for something else or force them upon unsuspecting family members and friends.

I also planted green peas using the same thingamajig. It too worked like a charm and  I am very glad I made it. It makes the work so much quicker that it saved me the hour and a bit I spent making it several times over. I will probably make another one with 15 sm spacing for crops that need slightly more space.

The peas will need support so I cut a bunch of approx. 80 cm long willow twigs and put them in a sunny place to dry up. I do not need to poke them in the ground near the peas before they poke out of the ground. It is better to let the stakes dry out as much as possible before using them, otherwise they take root.

And yesterday I started harvesting radishes. From now on for about a week, these will be daily condiments accompanying our dinners. They are delicious and once I am done with them, I will tell you how much (in kg) I got from one packet of seeds.