Potatoes

So Many Potatoes
Originally uploaded by Alexander Yates

Well, it's almost time to plant the potatoes. Every spring I've gone out and cut the potatoes sprouting in my cupboard and set them a foot apart on the newly warming soil. I was 19 when I first asked a woman who'd grown up on a farm, how do you grow potatoes. She said, cut the spud in pieces. Make sure there are one or two eyes per piece. Plant them and watch them grow. And be sure to continue to mound the dirt around the plants, as the ones exposed to the light will turn green. That green stuff is toxic you know, as is the plant itself. But the spud, oh my, so delicious. And when the plant gets it's pretty flowers, either white or purple, you can reach into the soil and feel around at the base of the plant for a sizable new potato. I like to cook these with the new peas that are on--so springy and wonderful.

If you want to follow tradition, plant your potatoes on Good Friday. It's a blessing.

Sweet Flower

Square Foot Gardening

My friend just built some boxes in her new back yard to do square foot gardening. The box is divided into 9 square feet and in each you plant something different. It is convenient to weed, since you can reach everything, you don't walk on the soil, so it never compresses, and you can manage it anywhere. The soil is a combination of peat and organic material and topsoil, so it is good and light and ready for healthy plants to grow. So much different than trying to improve hardpan or clayish soil. Look up the book, Square Foot Gardening All for now, running as usual.

Flower Power

PS Time to get out there--unless you plot is covered with snow and ice.

Tiny Vegetables

Do you need to grow tiny vegetables in a small plot? Or can you do your garden like you do your interiors. A large piece of furniture can act as a anchor in a living room. Could a large squash plant or giant cabbage be the anchor and around it tiny vegetables. Those little carrots, the tiny pumpkins, the baby cukes. Some things your pick little but grow more bushy or trailing, such as patty pan squash. Now that is a decent size plant. And the cherry tomatoes, 100 or 100000, aren't little plants, so how to get the most out of small gardens is my question this frosty morning in February.

Once the only garden I had in a yard was a three foot wide stretch along a fence next to the driveway. Along the chain link I planted a tomato plant and green beans that grew up the fence. I put in lettuce and carrots, basil, onions and zucchini. Really, my daughter and I had all the vegetables we needed in a very small sunny space. Of course, we didn't have extras to give away, we didn't have extras to can—just the stuff for our own table, the ingredients to make the sauce for the spaghetti we so frequently ate. The carrots for her to munch with her friends in the back yard. And we gardened together, so it was a bonding experience.

Since here in the PNW it isn't time to plant, it is time to plan. Perhaps draw out the shape of your space and grid it off in one foot squares. Try doing a little arranging with the things you'd like to grow. Get a Territorial Seed Company catalogue and plan ahead, order something new to grow. A new carrot, perhaps the multi-colored ones—or if you've never grown parsnips, try them. They are easy to grow and so delicious in parsnip potato soup.

Keep growing,

Flower

What's In Your Greenhouse?

I have been thinking about living in a house again. I've been in a condo since the fall of 2005. There have been a lot of good things about living in a condo--like outside doors locked at 5 pm. This has given me a feeling of safety as a newly single woman. And there are more conveniences: garbage pickup, recycling, ground maintenance, covered parking, cheap to heat, no yard care. The last one is a plus and a minus. Right now, if I still lived on the mini farm, I'd be checking out the green house on a sunny winter day. Here, a greenhouse would be pretty warm on a 50 degree day. If one had heated beds in the greenhouse, tomatoes could be growing, ready for a head start in the garden. I've also would start broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in my green house. These plants all transplant fine. With the coldframe, I've started greens, radishes, onions. Even in Spokane when the temps are pretty low at night, I had early vegetables. It was an amazing thing to see, these little plants in a neighbors coldframe. I got excited and built my own. It's easy, just build a box with the back side taller than the front. Get a used window from the salvage store and hinge it to the top. Set it up next to the house on the south side. You'll be pleasantly surprised how much heat it generates. But a few bricks in there to hold the heat and night. Radishes in no time. Ciao, Flower