Organic Gardening How To Blog

Spring has actually sprung and I can’t tell you just how excited I’m getting to be. I’ve waited months for the weather to warm up. Soon, I’ll be planting vegetables in our organic garden.

My husband knows how excited I get during this time of year and how passionate I am about organic gardening. The other day, he asked me why I didn’t try hydroponic gardening. After all, he said, I could grow vegetables all year round.

I know he is right…and, to be honest, I’m really not sure why I haven’t tried it. There are certainly many benefits for those that do have hydroponic gardens. Much less dirt, no tilling, no hoeing, fewer bugs and critters. I guess I’ve never tried hydroponic gardening because I’m just not sure how to build a hydroponic gardening system.

Watch this video to get a better idea on what I’m talking about:

Definitely some advantages to hydroponic gardening, isn’t there?

But, you know, I think I like getting that dirt between my fingers and toes. I hate them, but I think I enjoy fighting those critters and bugs. And, I like taking my chances with the elements. I’ll never give up my organic garden in our backyard…never!

However, that doesn’t mean that I’ll never try hydroponic gardening. It would be nice to grow vegetables all year round. Having a fresh home-grown salad on New Year’s Day would be nice.

So, I’ve done some research and I found a hydroponic gardening website that sells some pretty unique hydroponic systems. The site is called Stealthy Hydroponics. Go ahead, check them out and you will see what I mean. If you want to, I’ve put a banner to their website on the right hand side of this page…click on that banner to see their products.

The two systems that I am thinking about investing in are the Bubbleponics Pro II and the Stealth Hydro Aero-12 systems. These are both large enough to provide my family a fair amount of vegetables.

Of course, once I do finalize my decision, I’ll only buy one of them this year. If I like hydroponic gardening, I might try the other one next year.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Growing onions is really simple to do and home grown onions taste so much better than store bought onions. In this Organic Gardening How To, I want to discuss how you can make those onions taste even sweeter than you would ever had imagined.

First, to get you started, watch this short Organic Gardening How To video on how to plant and grow onions. By the way, this video was filmed in the Pikes Peak Region of Colorado and if you live in a warmer climate, you can plant your onions a few weeks earlier than what they do in the video. Now, watch…

Onions are really simple to grow…but, here is the secret to making them even sweeter:

1. Let the onions grow until their stalks are about 9″ tall…cut the stalks in half so that the stalk remaining on the onion is only 4-5″ tall.

2. Allow the onion to continue growing until the stalks are about 12″ tall…once again, cut the stalk in half so that the stalk remaining on the onion is about 6″ tall.

3. Repeat this process one more time…after the stalks are 12′ tall, cut them in half.

Trimming the stalks of the onions forces more energy into the bulbs of the onions and will cause them to grow bigger.

4. After you trim them 3 times, allow the onions to mature naturally.

5. When you see about 4″ of brown on the ends of the stalks, discontinue watering…leave them in the ground and don’t harvest for another 4 weeks. This increases their storage capacity and improves their sweetness.

6. After 4 weeks, using a hard rake, knock the stocks of the onions 90 degrees so that the stalks are horizontal to the ground…but, the onion should remain in the ground.

7. After one week, pull the onion bulbs out of the ground, but place them on top of the groung…laying them down on the ground on the same side that you had them on in Step 6 above…leave them there for two days.

8. After two days, turn them 180 degrees so that the other side of onion bulb is on the ground. Leave them this way for 24 hours more.

Allowing the sun to dry these onions for 3 days causes the enzymes of the onion to turn into sugar and improves their sweetness.

9. Now, you can complete the harvesting…however, leave as much dirt on the onions as you can. The dirt remaining on the onion fools the onion into believing it is still growing and your harvested onions will last much longer…sometimes up to 8 weeks longer. Simply braid the stalks of the onions together and hang in a cool, dry place.

Enjoy your sweet onions!

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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