Potatoes, Potahtoes

After a month of neglect and apathy, I finally got around to cleaning up the Fox St. garden. The dessicated pea plants came out, the grass was pulled out by its roots, the dead potato plants unceremoniously ripped out and tossed away. Then, after another month, I finally returned to the garden to finish the job we had started ages ago: potato harvest! Raking the garden to a depth of about 15 inches and collecting fist-sized purple potatoes was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. I think we need to go through it one more time, as I'm sure I missed many, but the yield was pretty good. Definitely we will need to do potatoes again next year, although they should be spaced a little more closely -- maybe twice the density we planted this year.

The lovely Lulu joined me in the garden, although given her penchant for garden hoses and an abrupt attempt at decapitation of the leash-holder, Lu may stay at home next time.

The haul! I was going to weigh them, but didn't, and now we've used a good number (delicious! gorgeous creamy white inside and fantastic cooked in a pan or in stew) so it's probably not worth bothering. I'm going to guess 20lbs. E will certainly have a better guess.

Not a bad harvest. I've read estimates of 10lbs per lb of seed potatoes, so if my estimate is correct, we're right at that ratio. These were fun, but unfortunately you aren't supposed to save your own potatoes to use for seed next year, and at $5/lb of seed potatoes, we might have to explore other options... So long caribe and purple viking! Hello boring ol' brown potato.

Next in that bed, I'm thinking garlic. Lots and lots of garlic.

Reminders for next year:
- Plant a bit more densely
- Try harvesting with a screen instead of just by rake
- Three-year rotation -- hit up Mavid for potato space
- Look for an alternate source for seed potatoes -- possibly here: http://www.potatogarden.com/prices.html, or here: https://www.mainepotatolady.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=28

Peas and Potatoes

Peas, peas, glorious peas! I am suddenly grateful the peas at the Druid Hill garden were eaten as the Fox St. peas have completely exploded. There are still more than a few plants blooming too, so if we don't destroy them picking the current crop, we might get another good-sized one. If we do demolish them (or decide we simply have had enough peas), they'll come out, and cucumbers and more beans will go in. I guess it's time to really hurry through our canned beans from last year.

And now, on to the potatoes. Neither of us have tried to grow potatoes before, but a few people at the Fox St. garden did last year, and it seemed easy enough. It was also hugely gratifying to pull the plants up too. So much so, in fact, that I have trouble trying not to peek (rip up and ruin, in other words) at our current potatoes. If I remember correctly, we chose the caribe and purple viking potatoes to begin with. According to Landreth's instructions the dirt should be raised around the plants after they are something like 8" tall, then again after they've grown a bit. Apparently this prevents the potatoes from growing out of the dirt. We are not sure if it actually encourages greater potato production by increasing root growth from the now-buried stem, but we're hoping that's true. Depending on how things go this year, we will do the experiment next year and just not bury a plant or two. As of today, the potato plants are huge, and are beginning to flower. I guess in a few weeks we could harvest baby potatoes, but for full-size ones we'll have to wait quite a bit longer. Might have to rip a plant up anyway just to see how they're doing...
While I'm on the subject of dirt, E and I recently realized that extra dirt is hard to find in the city. When you have a yard, you dig up some dirt, throw it on your potatoes, and there you go. When you don't have a yard (or a large enough yard, I guess), you go buy dirt from Home Depot (yeah, actually *pay* for dirt), bring it home in the truck, then dump it on your potatoes. Getting rid of dirt is also surprisingly difficult. So far, no solid plan there, except for some vague idea of a dirt swap between the chickens' bed and the garden. That, and perhaps driving the extra dirt to Mavid's.

Reminders:

• Do the experiment!
• Sweet potatoes