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.

    无论从观赏角度还是从食用角度来考虑，都能想到洋葱。如果你是去年春天种的洋葱或一般葱，那现在就该用叉子轻轻松一下葱茎旁边的泥土了。过几天就可以把它们收下来，晾干，然后放入储藏室，以备冬天食用。一般说来，洋葱要20个星期成熟，葱要26个星期成熟。下一年要找第一代杂交葱的话，就找托玛逊或马根号吧。

    要想在下一年六月收获的话，现在还有时间种秋季葱。有日本品种的，还有英国，西欧品种的，现在种日本葱有点晚，不过如果你那温度比较温和还能按时收获。

    你也可以把装饰用的葱和"五月花"及"紫色印象"和郁金香种在一起，相信这样够完美。