The first step to planting the onion sets was to level out the bed with my garden rake. I wanted the bed to be as level as possible to encourage even watering. Next I laid out the pattern for my sets, spacing them about three to four inches apart.
The spacing isn't totally perfect, but they move when I dig them in, so there is still room for adjustments. I fit eight rows into this three foot wide bed. Planting them close together helps them to fight weeds better since they don't have a large growth habit. After I dug them all in a couple inches, I laid out my irrigation drip lines over the bed. I made sure that all the lines were dripping well and then covered the whole bed with a layer of leaf mulch. I am going to try my best to keep all of my beds well mulched this year to conserve water and to reduce weed pressure.
To help keep the leaf mulch from blowing away, I hosed the whole thing down very well and allowed the drip line to moisten the mulch from beneath for awhile. Once the onions push up through the mulch, they will help hold it in place better. Now it should only be a couple of weeks until they start poking out of the leaves. Spring is officially here!
No comments:
Post a Comment