Expensive 'spring onions'

By mid-June the first of my autumn planted onion sets are normally getting big enough to start using them and by July I should of had a barrow load of onions, but not this year. Mice/voles kept eating the leaves down to the bulb all through winter and spring and they have completely failed. All I have left is about 30 spring onion size plants. So that's yet another crop I wont bother with for a while.

 

I'm aware that disappointment like this is all part of gardening but I'm not looking forward to facing it myself. How are your other crops faring Scrungee ?

 

Just pulled last years maincrop onions at the same size, slugs ate them down to the base.

 

I tried some autumn planted onions a few years ago, and pretty much lost the lot. Considering they only mature a month or two (?) ahead of spring planted onions, to me, it isn't worth it.

 

That's disheartening Scrungee...but i can see those going nicely in an ommlette with some cheese thrown in

 

For me, it's not only that welcome 2 month'ish period when I'm able to start using my own onions again, but the feel good factor of seeing something growing overwinter, plus having the ground available again that bit earlier enables more choice for planting subsequent crops.

Apples - extremely poor pollination - again
Sweet Williams - all died over winter
Strawberries - fruits late + weather stopped me from planting up and selling several hundred runners this year. They just didn't start growing in time or simply died over winter.
Spring Planting Garlic - frozen ground forced me to plant in 'peat' pots and plant out later, and the jury's out on how that's going to affect them.

 

After success beyond my expectations with onions last year, I planted some autumn planting ones thinking onions was my new crop for a while.

I planted about 100 sets last autumn. I had a look the other day. There's about 10 onions growing. 3 or 4 of them show promise for turning out a respectable size.

 

Hiya Scrungee

Yes, that was my thinking too, but the downside was that I had ground occupied by a failing crop come spring/planting time. I suppose it depends on how much ground one has. I need all my ground to be productive, as far as possible.

 

Garlic's huge this year too.

 

Mine's doing OK above the ground, 1.255 metres high (over four feet):



It wont grow much more as the scapes are coming;

Exactly how they were used! There were some really weedy ones that went straight to the hens.