It’s time to start thinking about ordering onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, sweet potato slips, and asparagus crowns. My favorite place to get these items is from Filaree Farms in Washington State. They are an organic operation, and family owned. Everything I’ve gotten from them has been first-rate.

For garlic, my favorite variety is a softneck called ‘Inchelium Red.’ I’ve grown it for the past five years and we love it. It has a strong flavor and a beautiful purple cast to it, and it dries and braids well. It’s also a fairly good keeper, even in our warm dry climate.

I do not grow onions, but I do grow shallots, and like both ‘Dutch Red‘ and ‘French Grey.’ We have had allium aphids quite badly with ‘Dutch Red,’ so I’m going to try ‘French Grey’ again this year and see if we have better odds.

Potatoes come in three different ‘time’ categories, if you will - early season, mid season, and late season. Early season include varieties such as ‘Yukon Gold’ (my favorite). Mid Season include varieties such as ‘Red Chieftain.’ Late varieties include all the fingerlings, and russets. It’s fun to plant 1-2 of each kind, so you have potatoes all the way through summer. Home-grown potatoes really do taste different than store-bought, so it’s worth giving it a try.

Asparagus is a vegetable that takes some patience, as well as a permanent place in your garden. You’ll plant the crowns, which look like little octopi, and then you’ll wait three long years, watching the shoots grow and flower and leaf, before you can start to harvest them. But once they establish, they’ll be in your garden for 15-20 years, which is a very good return on your investment.

Ordering now is recommended, as most growers run out of supply quite early. You might be able to find a local supply, but why not do it now, while you’re thinking about it?