Two plants going to seed and how to make onions grow bigger

This is one of the broccoli plants I saved to go to seed.  The yellow flowers are starting to die off and soon there will be little pods that will have the seeds in them.

Here is a spinach plant that will soon start developing seeds.  I will put a paper bag over it and bend the plant over carefully so I don't break the plant and let the seeds fall into the bag.  I will post pictures when it is time to start collecting the seeds.  This is the same plant that was in the last post.  It is bigger now.

Here is one of the onion flowers just about ready to open.  If you look closely you can see how the skin is rippled and holding the petals inside.  Now is the time to cut if off.

 I took scissors and cut the flower off close to the bottom of the bloom stock.

Here you can see how I have started bending the tops of the onions over.  Just break/crack the tops enough to keep them from standing back up.  Now the plant will put its energy back into the onion and not the leaves or flower.

More Garden update 6-16

These are the Cal White and the red potatoes.  The Cal White were the ones my husband bought that had long sprouts when we planted them.  The red ones were little ones I saved from last years crop.  The red ones have almost caught up with the white ones in size.

The blue potatoes are almost as big as the red.  The Yukon Gold have died.  I have decide that Yukon Gold potatoes do better with less water.  I have dug into the ground around all of the potatoes and the moisture is the same around all of them.  But the Yukon Gold have turned to mush.

These are Yukon Gold in the tote.  They are not doing very well.  I have raised this tote off of the ground so that the water can drain out of the crack in the bottom better.  The littlest one is now dead.  I hope the rest make it.

Planted green (actually purple) beans and a few beets in this bed on June 9.  This is the bed that the dove I was following around and taking picture of likes to dig holes in and sit.  I covered it with window screens to keep the dove out.  I have to cover the warm weather crops like this every year, because the birds eat the newly germinated plants.  Well for the first time the dove went under the edge of the screen and dug a hole to sit in.

The window screens are now on the ground to keep the dove out.

The bell peppers I planted in pots in the front yard the middle of  May look the same as when I planted them.

The chamomile has died.  I planted new seeds about a week ago and they are starting to germinate.  They are too tiny to see here.  What is the problem this year?

I have harvested a dozen or so basil leaves twice.  The plants look terrible and a few are starting to flower.  I picked off the flowers and hope I can keep them alive.  I'm not going to give up.  I probably should, but I am addicted to gardening and will keep trying.  Maybe the warmer weather will help.

Even the cilantro died.  That is a first. This bell pepper is still the same size it was a month ago when I put it in this pot.  I did reseed the cilantro.

The onions are the biggest I have ever grown.  The squash plants in the center died.  I replanted them and the pumpkins (in another bed) today (June 16).

Some of the onions are forming flowers like this one.  I am waiting for them to start to open and then I will break them off.  If they are taken off too soon they will just grow back again.  I want the flower removed so the plant will put its energy back into the bulb.