Scallions (bunching)

Scallions grow in a small bag by the kitchen door, seeded thick from April and pulled a few at a time from June on. Left alone at season's end, a patch often winters over and restarts itself.

Growing

Direct sow thickly from April onward in a 2 to 3 gallon bag or along a bed edge; there is no thinning, because harvest is the thinning. Pull what dinner needs from June through October and drop a pinch of seed in each gap. They ask for water in dry spells and nothing else. A late sowing left in place usually overwinters into the earliest alliums of spring.

Varieties

Evergreen Hardy White is the overwintering champion; Nabechan is the flavor pick; plain White Lisbon does honest work.

Pests

The allium leaf miner that troubles the leeks visits scallions too; the sign is the same line of white pinpricks down a blade. Netting through the April and September flights is enough, and the miners find big allium plantings faster than one small bag anyway.

In the kitchen

The whole plant works: white ends in the pan, green tops scissored over everything. Charred whole beside anything grilled, they stop being a garnish.