Grow Your Own – Onions and Shallots
If you’re thinking about growing your own vegetables this year, now is the perfect time to plant onions and shallots.
In the Wakefield and Ossett area, planting can take place from now right through until Easter, giving you the promise of a delicious home-grown harvest in summer.
Choose Your Favourites
Why not experiment with a few different varieties?
Do you prefer crisp white onions or the richer flavour of red onions?
Perhaps you enjoy smaller shallots for pickling, or larger ones that are ideal for roasting, cooking and salads.
Growing your own gives you the freedom to choose exactly what you love to eat.
How to Plant
Planting onions and shallots really is simple.
- Choose a sunny spot in the garden or a large container.
- Remove any weeds and loosen the soil
- Plant your “baby onions” (called sets) 10–15cm apart to give them room to grow and ‘onion’.
- Use a trowel to make a small hole and place each set in so the tip sits just at soil level.
- Firm the soil gently around each one.
Let Them Grow
Onions are wonderfully low maintenance. Keep the area weed-free and water during prolonged dry spells. Other than that, they’ll largely look after themselves.
When to Harvest
Once the foliage turns yellow and begins to flop over, your onions are ready to lift. If you’d like to store them, leave the bulbs in the sun for a few days to dry the outer skins before moving them somewhere cool and dry.
Top Tip from Owl Lane
As well as planting in beds, onions grow brilliantly in grow bags — perfect for patios and smaller gardens.
Why Grow Your Own Onions?
- They taste better
- It’s fun and satisfying
- It’s a great family project
- There’s nothing quite like eating something you’ve grown yourself
Pop into Owl Lane Nurseries to explore our range of onion sets, shallots, composts and fertilisers.
Our friendly team will be happy to help you choose the best varieties for your garden.
Happy planting!
