Onions, August Sun & Rabbit Habits

      Years of lousy onion crops motivated me to desperate measures in spring—I broke down and bought starter onions! Neither seeds nor sets work well in this climate. Having tried both with 3^rd rate results (am usually out of onions by the time I finish canning salsa) I relented, and my banner onion crop fills the whole top of the picnic table! Leeks are fine from seed, but you can leave them in until a really hard frost. In Ireland and England, with far milder winters than ours, gardeners leave them in the ground till they are ready to use them.

      Spuds are sparser this year owing to the weather. Some years there are a dozen under each hill, only 3, 4, or 5 this summer, but they are large and impressive. Requiring far less peeling, 1 or 2 will do an entire kettle of soup.

      I see I have acquired a family of intrepid rabbits, unintimidated by cats. They ate one cabbage plant on the edge of the garden but only one, and have helped themselves to one summer squash, again, only. Unlike the wasteful raccoons, Joe Peiffer always complained till he invested in an electric fence, went into the corn patch and took a bite out of every ear in a row!

Critical Eye welcomes people and animals with conservative habits.