Springboarding from a Spring Onion

Purple Spring Onions

I just sat down to take a quick look at my daily blog read and the very first blog inspired me to write this.  I was visiting PVE Design, a blog by a very talented artist whose work you see all over blogland.  Go check her out. She posted on Spring Onions this morning.  I started commenting on it and thought it was getting so long that the comment deserved its own post.

Celebrating Spring plantings, but not necessarily part of my Garden Trek series...

The Green Onion (also known as scallion, spring onion, Welsh onion) is an edible little plant from the genus allium.  The same family as the shallots, but a different species.  My understanding is that the green onion is just a baby version of the ubiquitous large onions.

They are extremely easy to grow.  Here is all you have to do:

• Buy a pack of starter seed onion from a hardware store or garden center.  You can grow all sorts of varieties:  regular yellow onions, red onions, sweet onion...
• Place a few of the bulbs about half an inch from the top of some soil in your garden bed or in a pot, wait a couple of weeks and plant some more. By 3 to 4 weeks, you will have a succession of fresh green onions to enjoy.  Just remember to keep the bag of unused bulbs in the refrigerator.
• Continue to plant as you harvest and you will have fresh green onions through the whole growing season. Don't forget to plant enough to share with the neighbors.

Also be sure to wash it really well inside the folds of the blades. Green onions are notorious for harboring harmful bacteria.  These little fellows are delicious, easy to grow, and they even look good in arrangements, albeit a little stinky.