Potato harvest

Geez, I had no idea about how productive potatoes are.  I planted 'eyes' here and there in my satellite beds among the tomatoes.  So, I spent time this evening harvesting; some were actually in soil, some were in straw, and others were in between. But there were LOTS of potatoes.

This evening's harvest were from a bed that was a straw-bale experiment and a more conventional block at the end of some tomatoes.

Read more...

Seed potatoes

Hooray, my potatoes arrived today! It's way too early to plant them (I was definitely optimistic when I sowed the first round of greens last weekend).

But gardening is about expectation and hope and looking forward to potential harvests. And each season is different in what the weather brings.

These potatoes have arrived in time to be 'chitted' (that is, sprouted), before planting in early March.

I could have searched out seed potatoes at a local seed and feed place (not that I've ever seen any available), but it's much more exciting to get these from a family farm in Maine -- Wood Prairie Farm. I've grown potatoes for the last several years with seed potatoes from them and have been happy with their choices and enjoyed the harvest. I haven't grown enough to store in a root cellar (I need to create one), but have harvested enough for us to savor the diversity.

Read more...

Planting potatoes and onions

The weather was perfect this weekend, spring-like even though it's technically still winter. The potatoes had sprouted nicely and the onion plants were ready to plant, so I went to work in the satellite garden, where the onions and potatoes have space to grow, and won't tempt emerging local woodchucks.My inadvertent foraging preference experiments last year revealed that potatoes are not appealing to woodchucks, thank goodness, nor were garlic or onions, in preference to all of the kales, beans, melons, cucumbers, okra, etc. which s/he/they ate with relish, I presume, judging by the pitiful stems that were left.

(I do have a new supply of something called 'Chuckster' and a woodchuck lure to hopefully catch and relocate whomever is unwise enough to emerge to forage in MY vegetable garden; in spite of my love for wildlife gardening, I figure woodchucks need to be out eating grass shoots, not my vegetables.)
The garlic, shallot, and Welsh onion beds needed to be weeded in the tidying up process, and the potato and onion beds prepared. Some spading and turning over existing beds, adding mushroom compost and composted manure, and they were ready to plant.
In a couple of the potato beds, I'm trying a traditional trench method modified and described by Barbara Pleasant; create a 12 inch wide trench about 5 inches deep, put down about an inch of compost, then the sprouted potatoes, then mulch with a thick layer of straw. This helps keep the developing potatoes 'clean' -- similar to growing potatoes in hay bales. I don't mind, actually, poking around in my fluffy raised bed soil for potatoes, so I planted a couple of beds with amended soil covering the potatoes. I ordered a variety of seed potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm. There's something about about purple and yellow potatoes that's just plain appealing, reflecting their ancient Andean heritage, perhaps.

Read more...