Onions the easy way.

When one thinks about growing onions, a long growing season with high maintenance comes to mind. To be quite honest we've decided that growing our own onions from seed might not even be worth the effort. That was until we decided to do some research on some easy growing alternatives.

Usually when buying onions from the store, you think brown or red onions. However, turn your attention to shallots, scallions and chives, a fresh spread of onions with a lot of personality. This turned out to be the answer for our garden as well.

Scallions: Also known as spring onions. A white onion where you usually eat the hollow stem. You can take scallions from the store and prop them in your ground one shot, with its small white roots into the soil. These onions grow extremely easy and fast. Scallions will compliment any salad, cracker, potato dish or quiche.

Shallots: When planting a Shallot onion (the physical store onion), the bulb will split and grow into about 5 new bulbs. This onion has a long shape and instead of rings it has cloves. It has a milder flavour than the normal brow onion with hints of garlic. This onion has a long growing season (about 6 months) and varies from brown to red in colour.

Chives: A great year round onion related herb to have in your garden. This onion is super easy to grow.

Although our shallots will take some time to mature they have a long shelf life and can be eaten throughout the year. While we wait for the shallots we will still be able to enjoy the flavours of our faster growing chives and scallions.