Potato Update & much more

It’s hard to know where to begin this time of year – everything is absolutely bursting into life.  The first thing I do in the morning is sneak outside and walk around to see what’s happened overnight.  The potatoes are just breaking through the ground – wow, that seems fast!

When the rest of the newer tulips started opening, I remembered the color palette I chose last year. 

 

 

I’m beginning work on a major project, probably better photographed from the roof, which I’ll do another time.  We have a narrow strip on the back edge of our property that was once an alleyway, abandoned by the city and turned over to the homeowners.  It never had real “grass” back there, and is kind of an unused area behind our garden.  Basically, a weed patch, which probably doesn’t amuse the neighbors.  We’re removing the sod, making trails, which will be kind of winding “figure 8’s” so that the kids can still run and play and hide back there.  In fact, they’ve been helping with the weed and sod removal. 

The paths will be sort of meandering and curvy – I have room for probably 5-6 large beds across the back of the property line.  The plantings will be mainly native perennials, for birds, butterflies, etc.  The bed farther back is covered in half-decomposed leaf mulch to try to kill the grass and weeds before planting.  It doesn’t look like much yet; we have a long ways to go.

My shady rock garden, just beginning to show some blooms.  This was a weedy undeveloped area under these old lilacs when we moved in.  The new shade beds are just behind this rock garden.  I left access to the lilacs because my kids like to CLIMB in them.  I can’t keep them out – if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

Mmmmm, just beginning to harvest some greens.

First green salad of the spring!

 

 

 

 

First spring vegetables

Today we had the first “harvest” of the season – a big bunch of asparagus.  Delicious! We are mere days away from the first spring salad; I’ve already tasted some spinach and radishes.  I thinned a few today and got some radishes big enough to eat; I have two plantings in, currently, and probably will do a third planting on Friday, if the weather cooperates.

Some of last year’s tulip plantings are up and beginning to open.  I love this mauve color.

Earthworms are out in force.  Every day I’m surprised to see them up on top of the soil, moving from place to place.  Sometimes there are several dozen in just one shovelful of garden soil.

Blueberry update: Things are looking amazing! It seems we have finally solved the rabbit issue; we may have hundreds of blossoms this year – and we’re crossing our fingers for berries.  If we can protect the bushes a few more years, I believe they will be too large for the rabbits to do much significant damage.

Peas! I’m not sure if these were planted early enough.  I readily admit I’ve been a miserable failure with peas.  The kids are not amused at these futile attempts, as peas are one of their favorite garden foods – they eat them right off the buhes.  These are a small variety, just a bush pea a few feet high.  Our weather here tends to get hot too quickly, following the last frost, and then the plants wither.  This variety is called “Frosty” and can go in earlier, so I’m hoping we’ll get something.  They have withstood a couple frosts already.

The stuff that looks like sawdust – is sawdust.  The city spent all day in the neighbor’s tree making several large trimmings – and the sawdust and small twigs, along with some bigger branches, are littering a large area of my yard.  Frustrating.  At least no big limbs fell (to my knowledge).

 

Asparagus rows and Potatoes

I was at the nursery last night and saw the asparagus crowns in the refrigerators.  Who doesn’t need more asparagus? Of course I brought home a box. They’re Jersey Giant, male plants.  (The female plants send up skinny, woody stalks).

To plant asparagus, you dig a trench about ten inches deep.  Our soil doesn’t need much amendment for growing asparagus – it’s nice and rich.  I dug a trench near our other row, trying not to disturb the established asparagus.  Then, I placed the crowns in like this:

The crowns are about 18″ apart.  Then, I spread out the roots, carefully, and covered with about 2″ of soil.  As the shoots begin to poke through, you add additional soil, on so on, until the trench is full.

The first year we’ll mulch in the fall, maybe with straw.

It’s a three year project – this asparagus will be ready to eat in three year’s time.  Having some already takes the sting out of having to wait.  I hope to be able to pickle and/or can what we don’t eat. 

I haven’t been great about adding additional soil/compost/manure to the established row, but this year I have some ready and waiting to go on once the aspargus is finished this spring.

Potatoes were the other project this morning! I’ve never planted potatoes before, though I’ve seen it done.  I thought the kids might enjoy digging them up, and as our last frost date is May 15, today is the day to plant.  I got a hardy northern variety, Norkota, which is supposed to be easy to grow.  Seed potatoes are the best thing to try to get the very best results, and they are inexpensive.  I’d like to try some more exotic varieties, but I’ll start with a white eating potato.  If the outcome is disastrous, I won’t feel so bad.

Here’s what they look like:

And then you cut in half, or even quarters, leaving eyes in each piece to develop into the plant.  The cut side is planted downward.

The potatoes go into a prepared bed.  You could plant with a trench method, or a mound method.  I chose to plant in a mound because I don’t need rows, and I could make use of one entire garden bed.  I made a mound in the rectangle – it sort of looked like a fresh grave!

This area actually gets full sun – it’s shaded now because I got up very early.  Then, the potatoes go in, about 3-4 inches deep.  These are about 12″ apart.  Ideally they would be 15″.  We’ll see if they’re too crowded or not.

These are covered – after they are up, and about 8″ of stem showing, more soil is mounded on top – the potato will form tubers off the stem.  The actual potato piece also needs to remain covered – otherwise it could turn green and become toxic. 

I just read about an interesting method of growing potatoes without a garden space, vertically.  You use 4 tires; lightly cultivate underneath, then set potatoes in the first tire; cover with soil.  As the plant grows up, cover the stem again, up to the top of the first tire, and place another tire so that the plant is forced upwards to reach the sun.  You repeat this step with each added tire, and the tubers are formed vertically along the plant stem within the stack of tires.  The tires make the stack “hot” and fast growing.  Very ingenious! Of course tires aren’t so pretty in your yard – so you’d have to pick the right spot.