Force Plants into Hibernation

I've got a little problem. The onions and beets I planted for seed died over the winter (I still have one onion, but that's not enough) so I won't have seed for beets or onions next year. I'm going to try something this year that I've thought of before but never actually did. I'm going to wait until the bulbs of this year's plants are about an inch in diameter and then pull them and try to force them into hibernation. If it works, I should be able to get small amounts of seed this year. Not as much as I'd like, but a little. I'll give updates later this year.

The other problem with doing it this way is that I can't choose the plants for seed--I have to just use whatever I get rather than using the largest bulbs. Next year I'm going to pull the seed beets and onions and keep them in storage. Hopefully that way they'll have a better chance of surviving.

Herbs are up!

It's spring again, so you're likely going to hear more from me. This week I need to thin the yarrow--the root-mass is about three feet across and I'll probably end up throwing most of it away. I want three pieces so I'll thin one back each year rather than messing with a massive plant every three years.

So (in the herb garden, not including what I have in the rest of the yard) I have chives, catnip, yarrow, horehound, tarragon, lemon-balm, lavender, basil, valerian, foxglove and parsley. Anything decorative or ground-coverish is in other areas. The mints are in their own pots, along with the thyme and the tansy.

The rosemary died over the winter and I'm actually thinking of getting rid of the horehound, planting something else there. Not sure what, yet.

The space is about 10 feet x 20, so there's a nice aisle down the middle. I'm trying to decide whether or not to stagger it and use that space--I'd lose my path, but have room for more plants. I have three spaces left in my herb garden if I don't decide to go in that direction.

Come to think of it, I'm going to go up and tear out a horehound bush.