Gardener's Notebook: A bit of this & a bit of that

YORKTON - Bits and pieces! Let’s make some tea and chat about a couple garden topics you might find interesting. They are not related at all, except that they can up recently in conversation with other gardeners.

Gardeners always like to try something new: how about a plant that moves? Some gardeners say that it ‘walks’! What are we talking about? Egyptian onions! Welcome to the world of the weird and wonderful in the allium family! Egyptian onions are called by various names like walking onions or tree onions. They are a perennial plant, very hardy, and they are interesting because they grow their bulbs at the top of the plant. Later, when these sets fall to the ground, they could end up a distance away from the mother plant…hence the name walking onion! So they are self-propagating.

Now is the time to plant these interesting specimens: it’s not complicated! Plant them about two inches or so deep, and that’s it! But you know, we have had Egyptian onions come up each year and we haven’t planted them at all; the bulblets either fall or get blown by the wind here and there in that onion patch, and when spring arrives, there they are, rooting and and ready to be part of the garden! They like an area with full sun, (but will also tolerate partial sun) and well-drained soil.

Egyptian onions have a mild taste for cooking, and you can use the green stems, too. But really, the most interesting thing about Egyptian onion is the plants themselves: they are very statuesque, with stems that may go straight up or twist into curlicues. And of course, how cool is that that the bulbs are suspended in mid-air!

I read that they can even be grown in pots indoors, so that might make an interesting winter experiment: bring in a few little bulbs, and pop them in a container of soil and see what happens. For those who don’t have a garden in the traditional sense but plant their gardens in containers, keep these onions in mind when spring comes; not only for a conversation-starter plant, but also one that you can grow in a container and use! So mark this idea down in your gardener’s notebook for next spring!

For gardeners who are looking for natural pest-deterrent plants, we learned at a recent hort meeting with our guest speaker Warren Crossman that French Marigolds may be effective in helping to keep potato bugs away. Have you maybe heard this too? So let’s talk about French marigolds! Is there a difference between French marigolds and other marigolds? Mais oui! There are hundreds of marigold varieties, but French marigolds are different in that they are shorter than many other varieties; their leaves are more delicate; and their fragrance is much stronger. Warren suggested that planting a row of these along your potato plants, or plantings in-between the potatoes, will keep potato bugs away. I have also read that these flowers are deer-resistant because of their strong smell.

Whether it will work in our gardens is an experiment for next spring, but it’s well worth trying and will certainly make the garden look attractive and attract pollinators. This is another note to record in our gardener’s notebooks.

This time of year is still so beautiful, even though the gardens are done. Take a tour of your garden each day and see how things change as nature prepares for winter. Thank you to our friends at YTW for their great work each week. Gardeners, visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a great week!