It's time to think about onions – ornamental and edible. If you planted onion or shallot sets last spring it's time to loosen their grip on the soil by lifting them gently with a fork, thus allowing bulbs to ripen. After a few days you can harvest your crop and leave it in a dry place before storing to use over winter. Onions take 20 weeks and shallots 26 weeks from planting to harvest, although it depends on weather. When ordering for next year look for a F1 hybrid onion set 'Santero' from Thompson & Morgan. It's resistant to downy mildew.

    If you want an early crop next year there's still time to sow autumn onion sets for harvesting in June. These are bred from Japanese onion varieties and include 'Senshyu' and the British- bred Japanese/Eastern European hybrid 'Shakespeare'. It's a little late for some to sow Japanese onion seeds as they are normally sown mid-August, but if you're in a mild area you may succeed sowing them now.

    You can also plant all ornamental onions and the May-flowering, clear-purple heads of 'Purple Sensation' make a perfect follow-up to late tulips.

    無論從觀賞角度還是從食用角度來考慮，都能想到洋蔥。如果你是去年春天種的洋蔥或一般蔥，那現在就該用叉子輕輕松一下蔥莖旁邊的泥土了。過幾天就可以把它們收下來，晾干，然后放入儲藏室，以備冬天食用。一般說來，洋蔥要20個星期成熟，蔥要26個星期成熟。下一年要找第一代雜交蔥的話，就找托瑪遜或馬根號吧。

    要想在下一年六月收獲的話，現在還有時間種秋季蔥。有日本品種的，還有英國，西歐品種的，現在種日本蔥有點晚，不過如果你那溫度比較溫和還能按時收獲。

    你也可以把裝飾用的蔥和"五月花"及"紫色印象"和郁金香種在一起，相信這樣夠完美。