Hi Hank, should be okay to plant them as long as you have done all your prep work first.

Hank, 2 months is a long time to go without water, especially newly planted sets. The ground needs to be continuously moist. They need 'mothering'. What about weeds? You'd be amazed how quickly weeds can take over a cultivated bed.

I don't know what your winters are like in Cheshire so I'll leave that for somebody else to answer.

I think the main prob wouldn't be water it would be birds pulling the sets up. I don't know why they do this but when i used to grow them it was a frequent job to go out and push them back in again until the roots grew big enough to hold them down. Try netting them before you go. We would be incredibly unlucky if winter had started by the end of October.

Even with netting, they wouldn't stand a chance against pernicious weeds. I never had a bird pull up an onion. In fact it repels them.

Netting does work to prevent birds from pulling the sets up. As to pernicious weeds, if you've prepared the bed properly there shouldn't be any in the soil and, at this time of year, you are unlikely to get a serious growth of annual weeds in the UK.

and don't forget to never explain how to "prepare the bed properly" so that weeds won't grow. She obviously hasn't done it before. Birds generally won't bother onions.

A couple inches of organic mulch will go a long way to conserve water and stifle weeds. Perhaps you can get somebody to check on them once a week. They need at least 1 inch of water per week.

Thanks guys, in reply to B, I'm leaving my son at home who will attend to the watering etc. And I've already attended to the ground preparation - have spread several bucketfuls of good compost on from out of my bin on the plot and dug it in, then spread some more on top.

Sounds good to me. have a good one.

Go for it Hank!

Can't wait, San Diego here I come.

Nice place to visit or live

Certainly is B. I go every year and stay at my daughters. I'd love to live there permanently.

You should San Diego has the perfect weather

I'm told that medical insurance is very costly for an octogenarian ?

lol I'm not even going there Hank, no no! My only advice is to eat healthy food, get good exercise, eliminate stress factors in your life and to never get sick or require medical attention.