Onions

Onions grow very well in the hill country of Texas. The hybrids developed for Texas do better than starters from northern countries/states (such as the ones I tried from Norway one year—they did okay, but the Texas ones were larger and grew faster).

Texas has a major industry in onions and Texas variety sweet onions grown at home are outstanding. They usually have a number by their name (1015y). These are very large yellow onions and as far as I can tell, disease resistant. A Most Excellent flavor and easy to care for. Can be planted in the fall if you can find them. I have planted other kinds, but this kind seems to be available in early spring. Plant as early as possible; they can withstand light freezes without a problem (and even snow fall one year!)

I’ve ordered from the following website: Onion Plants - Dixondale Farms The short-day sampler—1015y, White Granex and Southern Belle was excellent. I planted the first week of January and all did well into February. Harvested in May! – Harvest was Excellent. All types, white, purple and yellow were medium to very large. Excellent flavor in all three. No bug problems, no rot. Kept until late July with no rotting problems.

I’ve also found these types of starters quite early at Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Garlic
Garlic does well in hill country. Can be planted in the fall, but I didn’t find it gave me that much of a head start on growing. Most of the growing still seemed to happen in the spring/early summer. The garlic was good, but the darn cloves in the center were so small, peeling them was a nightmare…