The Master of Onions

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I am the master of growing onions. For me they never seem to have any trouble and even multiply exponentially. I always have more than enough, and have plenty to share. Perhaps I should market my secret? It’s truly remarkable how little care needs to go into these onions using my method. Once they are in the ground they are nearly impossible to foul up. Would you like some?

I must have millions of these to share.

Of course you really don’t want these onions,

you really don’t but you probably already have some in your possession,

they are wild! Wild onions that is!

They are everywhere in our landscape and gardens. From the garden beds to the lawn where ever you look you will find wild onions. Perhaps their presence is most notable when I mow the yard and their pungent scent emanates across the breeze mixing with the smell of freshly cut grass. To me the smell is actually pleasant and reminiscent of spring and summer. The truth is I don’t mind them in the yard once the fescue starts growing, you never even notice them, but in garden beds that’s another matter.
There are few things more frustrating than weeding an onion to have the green stalk pull off and leave the bulb behind to grow again. Eventually it will run out of energy and die if you keep pulling but until then you can expect to see more chutes emerge from your mulched beds. The most surefire way to pull one of these onions from a bed is to insert a trowel into the soil near the plant and lift the bulb while pulling the green stem with your other hand.

As for other methods boiling water works great if you have enough of it. I’ve tried vinegar and while it does make the lawn smell like a tasty salad its results were not as stupendous. Multiple applications are required but the plants eventually succumb. You could go to the nuclear option and try certain unnamed weed killers (or everything killers) but I avoid that route for the simple reason that I don’t want too many chemicals to be released in our environment. Broadleaf herbicides are effective but you have to be careful not to accidentally spray anything that you don’t want dead. The same goes for the vinegar as it is a non-selective herbicide as well.

In a way cool season weeds can be attractive. Just look at my clever fuss free arrangement of henbit and onions. It’s almost like an ornamental grass rising above a sea of sprawling ground cover flowers.

Of course you could eat your way out of the problem, but you had better like onions. You had better REALLY like onions!

8 thoughts on “The Master of Onions”

  1. At first I thought the eating kind of onions. You got me Dave! I hate these. I’ve been digging them too myself. Problem is my grass is green and it is difficult to find them and get them all. They keep multiplying despite my digging. Urgh!

  2. Hi Dave, you last photo is quite the design accomplishment! So clever. 🙂 We are pulling them daily and will never get them all. After a rain you can get a good handful and the bulbs sometimes will come out. Of course there are always little baby ones left behind to grow some more. Usually they just break off, but I get he satisfaction of setting them back some anyway. Roundup doesn’t work on them, or the violets. What a pest.
    Frances

  4. You really had me going there for a minute Dave, lol. I must be a master of onions too cause they are growing all over my yard too. 😉 Thanks for the boiling water tip, I’ll have to give that one a try.

  5. Thanks Dave, now I know what the weed is that I have everywhere. It's henbit. I hate the stuff. It's everywhere & covers all. I never use to have it. Don't know where it came from. Grows only in the winter. It runs too.

  6. I do love your header and yellowy sunny look. I’m ready for it! Bring it on–be gone with winter.

    I heard a lot of folks cutting their onions today. The mowers were humming and you really could smell it in the air. I have every weed known to man in my new yard. Thanks to last year’s drought, the weeds are the only green out there. I do see signs of the grass we planted. Maybe this weeks rain and sunshine will help.

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