Got Onions?

What is our first crop planted for the year?   Onions.  Yellow onions, to be precise. 




And we had some unexpected help.  My cousin Savana, the fastest onion-slinger in the Midwest. 



Anyway, first things first, Dad tilled a row in the upper garden yesterday. 




Then today, he and Savana threw in the fertilizer and raked it in.  Jack cheered on her efforts from the sidelines, before he grew bored and chased a cat with Cloe.  Cloe declined to become a farm dog this year.




Once that was done, Dad armed himself with his trusty tomato stake and poked two holes, side by side, all down the row.  About three by four inches apart.  Well, it started out that way until we still had most of a bag left so, he went back and poked some more holes in between.




Savana and my job was to stick the onion bulbs in.  Mom then tucked them into their cold little dirt beds--which didn't help us much when it came time to figure out where to poke in our third row of holes.




Row marked, and we were done.  Easy peasy :-)




I'll check back in a couple weeks, and see if we have any greenery showing.

Facts, Figures, and a little Nonsense:

• Onions - 160 yellow onions.  $1.59 per bag of 80 bulbs.
• Fertilizer - 6-26-26 or as I call it the "Dippin' Dot lookalike".  $15 per 50 lbs, but only about 2 lbs used.
• Time - 15 minutes of good, old fashioned fun :-)
• Concerns - The entire crop freezing solid in the ground :-(
• Signs - Bank of Bloomsdale calendar, the trusty guide to just about everything for gardening and the like, advises the following days for plantings root crops this month: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th (us), 10th, 11th, 12th, 30th, and 31st.
• Miscellaneous pictures:

Sunny Days are Here Again

Take a look.  I wasn't the only one venturing outside for the first taste of real sun with real warmth behind it.  The croci were too.





And what do I spy with my little camera eye?  A scattering of  succulents.  :-)






The birds were out, too--but this isn't the first we've seen the cardinals and chickadees.  As you can tell, they squat all year long.  At least they are pretty squatters.





But thanks to the temps, I could lay down a beach towel and . . .  well, not sun bathe, but make like a hunk o' innocuous junk in the yard.  That's how I got these closeups.







Until a bee much like these conspiring duo from last year came and buzzed me.

I'm afraid birds don't believe in the innocence of junk that screams and rolls around like a dog on fire.




Anyway, we all enjoyed the sun while it lasted.