Monday, May 3, 2010

Potatoes, tomatoes, ...



I had a 10:30 AM appointment for a 30-45 minutes visit and I left
after 3:30 PM... I'm too far from home to dash to the garden to brush
away my frustration, so I'll catch up with the blog.

A lot is happening. In early April the potatoes arrived, and a week or
so later since they already came with chubby tubers, I cut them in
pieces and put them in the ground hoping they wouldn't rot. It's
interesting how every seed potato seller tells you a different story
on how to deal with them. The one I used last year said cut them in
pieces, cover the cut surfaces with anti-fungal, let them dry for a
couple of days and then plant. The one from this year suggested to 

cut them and plant them right away. I guess there is more than one way to
do this right...


Obediently, I put them 2 inches under ground in 6 inch high furrows,
at however many inches apart. My dad would have brought the ruler, I
just did it translating from inches to centimeters and then convincing
myself that this high was about right.


I am experimenting with mustard meal. They look like cork worms. The
bag said how much you need per area, but it didn't say what to do with
them. So I just mixed them with soil before seeding the potatoes.  I
used two areas for potatoes, one in a raised bed and the other at
ground level. I used mustard meal in the raised bed only. Don't ask me why.

I didn't remember how long the potatoes were supposed to take to
sprout, and I waited, and waited looking a the lonely furrows
wondering if they were all rotten, or if I killed them with too much
fertilizer... but from one day to the next last week sure enough in
the raised bed there were green leaves coming through the soil (not
dirt, remember). My son and I were together when we saw them coming
up, and we started cheering and jumping. We had a good silly potato
time together, and then we watered the baby plants.

The ones on the ground level furrows hadn't come up yet, and I started
thinking: maybe it is too wet for them here and they are all rotten by
now... But yesterday, I saw the first plant breaking through the
ground, and then I remembered that I didn't put any mustard meal
there... Hey, fertilizers work!

All the leafy greens are sprouting, and with the heat this weekend,
they went from shy shoots to little plants in two days. The fairy
meadow is also coming up nicely, and in the flower garden the irises
and the lavender clematis are beautiful.

On Saturday I transplanted the tomato plants and leeks that I started
from seed.  I hope they didn't drown in last night's storm... I should
have saved some for later... Now I know from next year,  never put all
your tomato plants in the same basket.


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