Charlotte,

I am not sure of any local places to purchase onions or potatoes (someone will surely jump in that knows though!) but I thought I might point out that in the last few years we have done a group onion order from dixondale- you might just keep an eye on the forum to see if one is organized again. With all of us ordering it makes the onions much more reasonably priced and Seedmama does such a wonderful job of organizing the order (You are TREMENDOUS!).

Hope this helps!

Christina

If I lived in Norman, I'd do the Dixondale group order with others here. If you can't do the group order, Atwoods (I don't know if there's one in Norman) always has Dixondale onions. They carry seed potatoes as well, but so does Wal-mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

Leslie

I am so ready to garden also. If you make it to Tulsa around February Southwood Nursery in Jenks sells Dixondale. I am still eating on this years crop. Boy they are yummy.

Mike

Charlotte,

Congrats on your successful first full year of gardening and on your impending graduation from college.

In the past, I know that some people found Dixondale onions at K & K Nursery on Sooner Road, but I am not sure if they still carry them.

You can find seed potatoes just about anywhere at the right planting time for your area. I see them in places like Tractor Supply Company, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, and just about any and every nursery I venture into. Some Feed Stores/Farm Stores and even some garden nurseries sell the most common types out of bulk containers, selling them at a set price per pound. The big box stores tend to have them prepackaged in paper or plastic packaging. I am in southern OK and the potatoes usually hit the store shelves here any time between the week after Christmas and mid-January. It just depends on how long it takes the stores to clear out the holiday merchandise and start filling up the shelves with the first arriving gardening supplies. We don't plant that early here, but I like to buy them when the stores receive them so I can control the conditions they are exposed to while awaiting planting time.

I'll try to remember to come back here and post when I start seeing seed potatoes in the stores here. Usually y'all start seeing them in central OK just a couple of weeks after I start seeing them down here.

Garlic and onions will tolerate some shade, but they do better in full sun. There's lots of variables involved and not all onions behave the same way. I grow green onions (scallions) in a spot that gets afternoon shade and it isn't a problem since I am not trying to get them to bulb up. With regular onions, too much shade may give you smaller bulbs, but you'll still get onions. I haven't tried to deliberately grow garlic in shade,but sometimes taller plants nearby will shade my garlic some and I still get decently-sized cloves, though they sometimes are smaller than the ones grown in full sun. It kinda varies depending on how much shade they are getting and what the weather conditions are like in a given year.

Y'all, I am not sure if SeedMama will be coordinating the group order for Dixondale as she has in the past. The last time I heard from her, she was starting a new job that was going to be very demanding, time-wise. Maybe Paula knows. Paula? Are you here? If SeedMama is too busy, maybe another one of you there in central OK could take on that task? You really do get a terrific price break when you place a large order with Dixondale.

Mike, We are still eating on this year's crop too. I planted too many last year and need to plant fewer this year so I may switch to their Short-day and Intermediate-Day samplers so we still can have a nice variety of onions without planting a bundle of each kind they sell for our climate. We can only eat so many onions in a given year, no matter how yummy they are.

I've been ordering Dixondale onions via the internet since 2007, and before that I could occasionally (though not consistently every year) find them at stores in Texas. I am so spoiled by their freshness and great quality that I don't think I'll ever plant onions from anyone but Dixondale.

My onion-planting date is mid-February and some years I request an even earlier shipping date so I can get them in the ground earlier than usual if the weather is on the warm side. It doesn't seem like 2014 will be one of those "weather on the warm side" winters unless our weather pattern changes pretty drastically, but tomorrow I'm going to clean out the raised bed where I'll be planting onions this year so it is ready early just in case. Tomorrow's my last day to get some work done outdoors before the weather turns colder again and slaps some sense into all of us who are thinking thoughts of spring planting and such. I've spent a couple of hours a day outside in the garden this week and it was mostly wonderful, except when I found a tiny (3/8" long) grasshopper sitting there beside me. I have no idea why he hasn't frozen to death on these cold nights. It isn't often we still have grasshoppers out and about in December.

Dawn

There is a great price break to ordering on the group order (if someone does coordinate it this year) and the freshness can't be beat. When I couldn't get myself together to be in the group order last year, I bought my Dixondale onions at TLC on Memorial Rd in OKC. They were a little dry and scraggly when I got mine in Feb, I think, but I still got a good crop. If I go that route again, I'll go earlier, in January, probably. They are pretty inexpensive at TLC.

Thank you for the info, everyone! I will keep a look out for a group order, and if not, then I can look at Atwoods or K&K. I dug out the beds ready for the onions on Friday. Now to wait impatiently for the weather to cooperate to get some more done!

When you find some cooperative weather, be sure to come back and let us know. The weather lately just isn't being very cooperative. I'm already over winter and ready for spring, but the weather insists upon being cold and cruel.

Hi you guys!!!! Yes, I'm still around.....been lurking again for months now. Been crazy, crazy, crazy at my house BUT....the seed catalogs have brought me back to my senses....if I ever had any to begin with. ha!

As far as a group order, I can confirm that Seedmama is up to her ears in her new job and to say it's time consuming is an understatement. I'm lucky if she calls once a month and it's usually on her drive home from Dallas or Tulsa or the airport. She hasn't told me this, but it's safe to say she won't have time to chair the group order.

Charlotte - I'm in Norman too!!!! I will be happy to call K&K to see if we could perhaps tack on to their order, but last time Seedmama talked to them about that - they were less than helpful. I will be happy to give it another try if there's enough interest.

As an alternative - and we'll have to get busy really fast - I'd be happy to help someone. Right now, I don't have the time to gather and place the order but I'd be happy to receive, sort and arrange a meeting spot to deliver. (I've got a new grand-daughter due ANY day now!!!)

I do know that Atwoods Norman and K&K usually have dixondale's but I too have experienced those being dried out and not quite as hardy as the ones we receive when we place a group order.

Think about it and someone let me know if you want to carry the first half, I'll get the back side of the work.

Paula

Hi Folks!
Saw my name but didn't read the posts. I'll be posting the group order shortly.
Seedmama

HaHa!! Guess you haven't turned in your Wonder Woman cape yet, Seedmama?

Let me know if I can help!

Paula

Oh heavens! That cape mythology is just a figment of my friends' imaginations! I will acknowledge that in the last few months I have flown out of my high heels running through an airport more than once!

P-mac, if the onions arrive late like they did last year, I may be calling you on to help me get people notified that group delivery has been rescheduled to Saturday.

I wanted to add that K&K was very helpful when we tried to use them for the group order. It's just that they weren't able to provide what we needed. Their price was great, but we were limited by the varieties provided by their wholesaler, and there was no control over timing. K&K is the kind of place where service is king, and I do wish things were different so we could utilize them for the group order. See my post on the ordering thread for why I do the group order.