STORE ONIONS AND SHALLOTS

Dry alliums indoors. I’d dug my shallots and was drying them in rows on the wooden edge of a raised bed when all that rain fell. Result? A fair proportion have either resprouted, softened or started to rot. Drats! It’s important onions and shallots aren’t allowed to get damp (even from dew) after harvest, so take them indoors, into a warm, well ventilated room or shed or lay them out under a covered verandah. Once fully dry (rub the stalks; they should be brittle and papery), you can store your alliums in paper bags, hessian sacks or recycled onion bags. They should last all winter. This column is adapted from the weekly e-zine, get growing, from New Zealand Gardener magazine. For gardening advice delivered to your inbox every Friday, sign up for Get Growing at: getgrowing.co.nz

weather to come. That’s because the fruit ends up sitting on damp, dewy soil for most of the day.

Can you do anything to speed up ripening so all that effort doesn’t go to waste? You can lift the fruit up off the soil – use a small brick or an upturned terracotta pot – to keep it warmer and drier, or slip a piece of black polythene under it. Don’t judge ripeness by size, as tennis ballsized rockmelons (like mine) can be just as sweet and juicy as rugby ball-sized watermelons. When the vine starts to shrivel back, tap the fruit gently – if ripe, they will sound slightly hollow – and be aware that birds are liable to peck holes in them if you leave them unattended.