At any rate, this rant is because I am closing down the garden aspect of my blog and transforming it into a regular, run-of-the-mill, any-subject-goes sorta blog. Transformation coming soon.
Until then...
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link |
( 2.8 / 321 )I received an insert with my potato seeds that I bought from Peaceful Valley Farms (www.groworganic.com) talking about growing potatoes under straw. So, I decided to give it a shot and see how it goes.
To prepare my potato seeds, which are actually small potatoes and not seeds, I put them in a paper bag with a ripe apple and left them alone for a couple of weeks. The apple was to induce the potatoes to grow eyes so I could tell where to section them. You want at least 2 eyes per bit of potato seed you cut and plant. I am planting organic German Butterball potatoes, organic French Fingerling potatoes, and organic Purple Peruvian Fingerling potatoes.
I lightly tilled the soil and added some natural vegetable fertilizer. I then dug shallow trenches, a couple of inches deep, and placed the sectioned pieces of potato seeds in the trench, spacing them 8 inches apart. I covered with soil and then placed straw on top of them.
I also read you can gown potatoes in a basket. So, as you can see by the pictures, I made a wire basket, put some soil the bottom, placed three whole potato seeds in there, and covered with about six inches of straw. I didn't section these seeds because I also read somewhere it's better not to section the seeds. So, we'll see what grows best.
I encolsed the potato area with chicken wire, although the the photos were taken beforehand. While planting, the cats kept coming over and playing in the straw. The last thing I want is my potato garden to be a cat box!
I've also posted some updated photos of my veggies. I still have bird netting over them, which you can kinda see in the pictures. All are doing great and growing well. I've harvested 3 batches of lettuce from the red leaf plants.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link |
( 2.7 / 334 )The holes in the leaves are getting worse, as you can see from the cabbage leaf photo below. All the plants are doing really well though, so whatever is eating the leaves isn't impacting the health of my plants.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link |
( 2.9 / 228 )Just wanted to post more photos of my garden. Things are doing well, although something, a bug I presume, is eating holes in the leaves of my veggies. I'm going to have to live with it though because I won't spray chemicals on my food or in my yard.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link |
( 2.9 / 207 )These photos were taken on October 24, 15 days after my first planting. I also planted my last square two days ago, a variety of baby carrots that don't require a lot of space. They are in the square with new straw. The other squares of carrots are starting to come up so I'm slowing taking the straw off of them. I don't want to injure the new growth. In the third photo, you can see peas that were planted on October 15 emerging.
[ add comment ] | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 184 )Next
Calendar
