Onionology is complicated. Will try to clarify a little: First a little background: "onion" is a huge catch-all imprecise category encompassing a highly diverse clan, allium cepa and other allium species as well. What we are talking about here are bi-annual bulbing onions, grown from seed. All varieties of bulbing onions ultimately derive from the so-called "spanish" onion. They fall into two rough categories, long-day and short-day, based on how much daylight there is around the solstices where the plant is growing. So bulbing onions are highly sensitive to photo period. The first most important thing to know is whether your latitude is "short" day or "long" day. As it happens, Kentucky is kind of in the middle, either might work though long day is probably more likely to do well. There are also a few hybrid varieties called "intermediate" day that might do best of all for you. Short-day varieties are sown in fall and come to full size in late spring. They require more than just low latitude, they also require a mild winter climate, about z7b or warmer, so some regions of KY might work and others not. Long-day are sown soon after the winter solstice and planted out in early spring and are full size in mid to late summer, depending. An exception is the walla-walla which is adapted to the PNW and I think there may be one or two others long-days that can be fall-sown in mild northern climes. So the infamous "sets" are small bulbs grown from seed and then planted to grow for the plant's second season. The plant really wants to bolt and grow seed rather than a bulb. Sets are a scam perpetrated by seed companies. They are mostly a waste of time and space. Buy plants grown from seed in texas next year, they come at just the right time for planting out and the results will be far better.

Hi, I'm a beginner too, but a much warmer location, so my experience may not apply. I started my seeds inside as well mainly because I'm new to the GH and trust the inside temps more (high and low). Also because I live in a semi-swampy area along a creek and have had fungus gnats since the day I put poly on my GH. I still started my seeds about 8 weeks before my last frost date, but this is mainly cause I'm new at this and some of the seeds will go outside. I'm planning on keeping the seedlings indoors for about 4 weeks, hardening them off in the last week, then moving to the GH. I made a simple GH in my room out of tie-wire and light weight poly just to hold moisture. And I have also added flourescent lights, mainly because in my east facing window I only get about four hours of sun. I know that most people recommend placing flourescents close but my little GH keeps them about a foot away, and I can say the tall seedlings(cucumbers about 3 inches tall) are already bending to the window. This is a great site and I'm sure more people will share their experiences, but everyone has different variables, and in the end I think it's just trial and error to find what works for you. Good luck, I hope it goes well for you!

It is true that experts and pamphlets are always going on about layers of brown and green of particular depth, and wetting and turning the pile, Probably they are thinking they should start newbies out composting according to best practice, without the experts realizing that they make it sound so complicated that it might stop people from even trying. A health and fitness magazine I used to get had a small article about composting. They made the whole layering/turning/wetting business sound mandatory. I wrote a letter to them explaining that if you throw whatever you have in a pile, it will rot, and those other things are optional. They printed the letter, but who knows how many people had already thought, "Oh, composting is too hard." John, you say that you leave the greens and browns pile up separately. The fact that they compost faster than predicted is probably because they are doing some composting while they are waiting to be mixed together, also because you shred them. Smaller items compost faster. As for quantity applied, well, most people don't have that much, so they don't say to use that much. I garden mostly in lasagna beds that are quite deep with compost, and almost everyone agrees that this will work fine. As for turning, that can help the process, but I think most of us know that is optional. So really no conflict with composting theory per se, you just don't follow the 'best practice' possible for fastest, hottest composting. So what, sounds like you are doing great. (You must have one heck of a shredder to shred that much material!) Marcia

rj_hythloday, The pragmatist in me says: If you're going to be gone, who will tend and harvest? Sounds almost like a year not to bother. I tried last year with the unexpected death of my parents, and although I had already WSed many items, it was quite a challenge to keep things up last summer. the optimist in me (hoping that your partner would indeed water and pay more attention to the garden in your absence) says: I can see how you would want to push things up a step and direct sow so that there would be no transplanting. You can use the tops of milk jugs as cloches, but that really wouldn't be Winter Sowing. It would be Direct Sowing. I still keep looking at your abreviated list thinking "oh my god...if i sowed that and had to be away for three months, everything would be dead and brown when i got back." (lol) Linda