POTATO POTAHTO

What do you get when you buy 10 pounds of seed potato because you are so damn excited you can buy ten pounds of seed potato? The ability to grow over 600 pounds of potatoes..then one must wonder where the heck is that gonna happen on a portion of 1/10th of an acre. HA.

Well I decided, my eye was bigger than my plate, and my yard. One plus, I am growing all of my potatoes in containers this year. So I will not have to plow my yard to grow said potatoes, but I am instead growing them in garbage bags. Brilliant! But that would be about 20 freaking bags in my yard....not brilliant. I have simply resolved to plant less and share more. So I thought long and hard and given the research and the leg work, I decided to take my extra seed potato and make little kits consisting of some directions on cute paper, 6 ready to drop in the dirt, seed potatoes, and a clean garbage bag put it all together for $5.00. If they don't sell I will grow them myself and make potato flour. ( yes I realize I was numerically challenged and took a picture of 5 potatoes...there are 6 in the bag.)

I put together my first two potato bags and have about 8 more to construct. It is probably important to really consider placement because I will constantly have to add material to mound up under the plants and don't want to be trucking all over with dirt, although I am fairly certain compostable material will suffice and generally that is pretty light. I also don't think I will need near as much dirt as I did when I put the potatoes in the ground. So it is pretty conservative I think:) You also want to consider that it will be too heavy to move when it is harvest time so all that dirt is gonna be spilled out where it sits...plan appropriatly, although I am sure you could put it anywhere and accomodate that with a tarp or or a drop cloth when the time comes.

So here is how it went. I took my bag and put four 12 ounce empty water bottles from the recycling bin in the bottom. I then put a good six inches of sod I pulled up the other day on top of that. At this point I poked holes for water drainage, because I am cheap and utilize what ever the heck it seems might work, and because I have 4 boys roaming about my house and scissors or knives were out, grabbed an old kabob stick thing I had in my knife drawer and used that. I have never made a kabob so I am thinking it will not be missed. I poked hold through the bottom and along the sides. As the plant grows I will poke more holes in the side for drainage. The bottles in the bottom function to assist drainage too and it helps lower the amount of soil we need.

Next I dug up some fresh soil from last years sunflower bed and put about 2 inches of that in. I put the seed directly onto of the soil, with the "eyes" up with one in the middle and the other 5 at least 4 inches part in a circle around the one in the middle careful to mind my distance from the edge of the bag too. I covered that with about another 2-3 inches of soil and put some dry material from my compost bin and some leaves on top of that. Watered well and now we wait:)

Weekend Update

Quick update, the tomato fence and bean trellis are up all together a cost for about $45.00. It took half an hour to construct. Pictures to follow soon. I have decided that bed 4 is going to be where I lasagna compost for the next few weeks so maybe it will just prep itself if it does not progress I will bring in the tiller. I got the idea form this month's Mary Jane magazine. So I can focus on spot prep of some of the merged areas and get the area around the tomato fence ready for the first few plants. Today I am all about containers though. I have decided to us this mountain of sod from my last entry to grow potatoes in. Also I am going to construct some trash bag potato containers and a few other small scale containers for some of my seedlings;) I need to construct a larger container today for my celery so it can start its loooooooong season;) At first glance I know I have a compost barrel (potatoes) plastic bags and 3 or four largish containers to prep:) Love having a goal:)

Up to my elbows in garden

The garden has been progressing in leaps and bounds.Let me start with the condition of the beds. I am determining that the effort of removing the sod and double digging the soil (the method I used on bed 1) is paying off tenfold compared tot he just tilled bed 2 from last year. Alas I just have not found the spirit or back to double dig the large expanded plot for this year. So I employed the assistance of 6 young boys...who spent the better part of 2 weeks digging in nirvana in my beds. I still think bed 1 is better in the looseness and quality of the soil, so double digging is absolutely worth the effort you put in to it.

I have completed work on the cucumber trellis, and 5 pea tee pees (say that fast five times). I got a bit carried away when planting my peas because I went ahead and planted some around the cucumber trellis as well, i figured they grew pretty early last season and were done before most of my high summer crops even went in the ground so we will see how it goes this year. The cuke trellis is the faux french door frame i took out of my patio door last summer secured with zip ties and staked to the ground. I used masonry string to create more climbing area. and fruit support. The pee tee pees are made of 4 foot bamboo pole I got at walmart for about $2.80 and they are tri pole tee pees tied at the top, and again I used masonry line to create more climbing area. I feel it necessary to add that while I am typing this my 2year old is sitting next to me drawing all over his belly with a red magic marker.

We had an unfortunate accident the other day when Toby the ferocious Cairn terrier ( read...dog who likes to dig) got wrapped around two of my Pea tee pees (just as hard to type as to say). We had two bamboo casualties that were mended with the power of my mind (cuz I have tiger blood right? ) no, no... just a lame Charlie Sheen shot, I used the force...Duct tape. No home improvement project (if you can call this garden home improvement) would be complete without it right?

The Toby Incident had gotten me thinking about how to keep the dog out of my garden (for obvious reasons) and so i went to peruse my local Home Depot for idea I probably could never afford and came up with a 4 folding garden fences (the cute kind grandma used to have and some chicken wire. I am not living it at the moment, I may have to get at it with some wire cutters and some good 'ol Libra artsy fartsy-ness to make it look cute again. It is semi-dog proof, truth is if he wants in bad enough he will get in. Maybe I can duct tape him.

Early last week I planted my first seeds in bed 2: lettuce, peas, onions, turnips cabbage and spinach. I am not sure the soil is loose enough I hope it was not a waste, I did not plant tons so we will see what comes up. On Saturday we too a trip to the dump and bought 300 pounds of compost in 4 garden bags for $2.80 love these prices:) I cannot love that I have to make 2 separate trips if I want compost AND mulch, boooo. Meanwhile I looked on in envy at the smart people who rented u-haul pick up trucks, they got lots of compost loaded for them via front loader. Sooo, that is what I am doing next week, I still have to make 2 trips to get mulch AND compost but I can get it all in two trips instead of six and I won't get compost in my eyes and my shoes. U-haul pick up costs 19.99 and .53 cents a mile. Which got me thinking about all the lovely things I can rent like a TILLER! I have so much more to dig and nooooo motivation to do it.. have you ever dug a farm by hand on a 30 degree incline? I think I got that bug outta my system :)

I have been taking a little break this week ( it is Monday) and the seedlings are doing well. I do have to keep on top of my tenacious two year old who keeps plucking my seedlings which really makes me crazy. I think I have resorted to saying, "YOU'RE KILLING OUR FOOD" which is starting to distress my four year old who thinks that we are going to starve now. But on the bright side, I have discovered I have a 50/50 shot of sticking that poor seedling back in the dirt and saving it, although i have no freaking idea if it is lettuce or tomato this point...heathen. But how can you get mad at this?

My last thought is about my compost. I checked it out this week. Alas, I tend to avoid the "worm house" because whereas the boys are excited to find worms all the time, I only find slugs (for which I have an extreme and disturbing obsession and phobia). But I steeled my resolve and plowed in with a hoe (yes the hoe) My dear husband had our only shovel and was working hard making our fire pit. I am a resourceful gal (read cheap because i refuse to spend 30 bucks on a pitchfork and you just don't see them often on craigslist). I think I MAY be getting closer to biting that bullet on that one but for now I have my shovel and a hoe. By the way let me digress and make it very clear that when you tell a 4 year old to please get you the hoe, it sounds remarkable like "hose" which is an exciting prospect for said 4 year old who ran down the hill turned on the spigot after which his cohort in crime looked at it and said ohhhhh something to play with, thereby spraying is unsuspecting mother in the REAR with very cold water. I almost jumped in the bin with the slugs...ALMOST.

Back on track, the compost, I found was not quite progressing so I inquired to some other composters and we agree, it looks pretty dry and needs more greens. I am hoping my husband mows this weeks and I can see if some grass clipping will jump start my compost.

That is it for this entry...I probably forgot a thousand things (you are probably glad:) I

am sure I will remember (neener neener) and I promise to update more frequently. Please feel free to add questions or comments:)

SEED TEST RESULTS COMING IN

I am very excited to post that after three days 8 of 10 of my save lettuce seed has sprouted... So proud that I grew it, I recovered new seed and now will grow it again:) This is just so profound for a girl like me.. I made food and did not buy it in a grocery store....

Anyhow, here are the results pics to follow later.

black seeded simpson lettuce seed 8:10

onion 5:10

no activity on the other but the peas are looking rather plump

Still awaiting result on the other items but this is just flipping exciting to me..

In other news, the seed are officially started. I am awaiting my last group of seed purchases by mail and 32 berry plants, blueberry, strawberry and raspberry. I am currently planning my container set ups and this wee if I get to the sump for compost I will plant peas in the bed... That's my plan:)


Afterthought: The kids were awesome today and helped me clean up some of the yard waste from last years garden, we turned the compost, added some browns and clean up some trash. I should be ready to turna nd plant by the end of this week although I don't have much compost, I may be able to add a little to the areas I am planting in . Mpther nature was a charm this afternnon and watered my compost for me:) The kid got to meet a worm they named him William he was in our compost pile hope he has lots of buddies. All in all a good, productive day:)


Happy growing

E

Free is Good

This has been a mad productive week first with the wonderful gift of seed from a very thoughtful friend and culminating in seed start prep this rainy Sunday afternoon. My dear husband and my children and their good friend Quinn helped me out. I made 132 containers to start seed in and used 1 Sunday Newspaper, about 7 paper towel roll tubes, 2 egg cartons and a McDonald's drink carrier. (see picture below) The entire project took about 2 hours and the kids were able to actually be useful and help (the four year olds that is). They helped me tape all the bottoms and we had quite an assembly line going:) Final count 132 chances to start a seed that will feed our family...for the cost of nothing. As I walk through the Home Deport for the fifty-sixth time this month I will chuckle as I pass all the peat pots and various other gadgets and contraptions that cost a fortune and know we did it very easily with re purposed household items and that will taste a bit sweeter in the end. Lesson learned is gardening does not have to be EXPENSIVE! Planning and ingenuity are free! (below are most of them, never mind the cat...LOL)

Also thought I should add that today i set up a seed test for the seed I collected from last years garden adventure. I placed the seed in sets of ten with the exception of the peas and the apple seed because i simply did not have enough..so the smaller number wills suffice and somehow I will figure out the mathematical nonsense that will define the ratio of seed I will need to plant if in fact any of them germinate during the test..Whew.

So in simple less manic terms, the seed are on a damp paper towel and wrapped in plastic ala third grade science bean plant style. Somewhere near by I have a "map" to remind me what each seed is since I have already confused the onion from the lettuce:) top row is from r - l spinach, apple, onion. Middle is pea and dill, bottom row is cilantro and lettuce. If they germinate I take the number that germinated and the number that did not and have the means to determine a ratio of how many seeds I should plant to have a chance at growing something (this is where I need to find a math geek because this I can not do.... I do have a weakness...ok I have MANY of them.....LOL) the test should take about a week or two and if nothing happens then the seed is bad. This is good for that old pack of seeds you had sitting in your junk drawer for 6 years because of the garden you were planning....uhuh...guilty as charged....;)

Happy growing!