A welcome mistake

[ohareward]

Onion plants have a sparse rooting system and feed within a limited area. You should prepare your garden soil for your onions by manuring the plot the previous Autumn.
For an early onion crop, you should start your onion seedlings indoors. Plant your seeds in flats about two months prior to the planting date. You should sow about five seeds per every square inch.
When the seedlings are ready for the garden, you should cut back the tops to about four inches. A good guide for knowing when your seedlings are ready to transplant into your garden is to compare them to a pencil. When they are pencil size, they are ready – weather permitting. Onions that are grown from seedlings indoors should be planted in the garden mid-spring.
If you would like, you can wait and sow your onion seeds directly into the ground in the spring when all threats of frost have passed. To plant directly into the garden, you should make furrows which are about a foot apart. Place four to five seeds per every inch in the furrows.
You should set your onion seedlings out in the garden with spacing of four to six inches between each plant. Your onion rows should have about a foot between them. (You should use this same spacing guide when you are thinning out onion seedlings that you have directly sown into the garden.)
When harvesting your onions, you should loosen the bulbs with a fork and allow them to dry out in the garden for a few days. This will allow the skins to toughen and the quality of your onion will be better.
You should not try to clean the onion (or remove the soil around the onion) until the onion is entirely cured.
If you want to have a good supply of onions, it should be noted that you can do both types of planting methods.
Start one set of onion seeds indoors about two months before the expected planting date. Then, sow another set of onion seeds into your garden in the middle of spring when the weather permits. (You should plant your seedlings that are grown indoors at the same time that you sow your onion seeds directly into the garden.)
Onion sets will generally mature within 90 days. Onion seeds will be mature in 180 days.

Robin

[digiveg]

It's a well-known fact, here in Wales, that potatoes have developed the power of flight.

[Pilsbury]

when sieveing my compost from the bin last november i came across 2 perfect "new potatoes" that i was amused to find in there so i set then aside. Once i had seived my compost and fill 3 1/2 old compost sacks to keep it fo this year i popped the 2 spuds on top of the 1/2 filled one to show my OH, however i compleatly forgot about them until about 3 weeks ago when the shoots started sticking out the top of the bag
I have now earthed them up and am awaiting a small but unplanned crop of sweet and tasty new potatoes

[possum]

Potatoes definitely seemed to have self seeded themselves - we certainly didn't plant them, and we we put the contents of the compost bin on the new raised border we ended up with dozens of tomato plants - much healthier than the ones I had planted myself.

And as for parsely......... We we mow the stuff, it grows better than grass in the lawn.

[Millymollymandy]

That's a new idea for a lawn!

[Cheezy]

Chives....God damn chives everywhere. THis year I'm not letting them go to seed!.

One blessing is the wild rocket has gone wild and seeded everywhere, i'm potting these up to give to people.It's great stuff

[Thomzo]

Chives....God damn chives everywhere. THis year I'm not letting them go to seed!.

Me too. They are looking pretty now but boy do they spread. They have colonised the cracks in my patio slabs and then they are almost impossible to get out. I use them instead of onions in everything at the moment.

I share your resolution not to let them seed.
Zoe

[Millymollymandy]

I have the same problem with garlic chives, because I love their flowers and leave the flower heads on the plant all through the winter. Result - millions of seedlings everywhere getting mixed up with my other plants and herbs.

[the.fee.fairy]

Sounds like i need to get some chived and chuck them on the lawn!!

Are there sweet varieties? As nice as it would be to have that garlic smell wafting up every time the lawn got mowed, it might clash with teh lavender and jasmine!!

[Cornelian]

One of my lettuces self-seeded everywhere as well. Currently I have a wonderful crop of wild lettuce in my gooseberry patch!

[yugogypsy]

I have a mizuna in my herb bed-some went to seed in the cold frame and I guess it decided to travel further than the rest

And we have our usual happy crop of potatoes everywhere but where they started.

Lois