This year we've paired our potatoes with corn and beans. The taters were buried in trenches while their companions were settled on the top of the mounds. The plan was to fill the trenches in as the taters grew. So we did just that.
We got some straw and chopped it up a bit with some hedge clippers. By the way this is not easy, straw is tough. Meg has got some guns.
After we filled the trenches pretty good with straw, we looted some compost from a heap of leaves that was left in our yard since before we even moved here. The compost was pretty good, but Meg ended up getting some poison ivy on her face. It's not too bad, but it still sucks all the same.
We topped off the straw with the black gold and gave it a good bit of water. What all this will do is allow the potatoes to produce tubers off their buried stems and it will also allow the corn and beans to generate stronger root systems. Oh, and it looks real nice too.
17 June 2008
Taters
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5 comments:
I have potato envy.
Nice pictures and explanation on what you did. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Katie,
Oh just you wait until harvest. My mouth is watering for some of those all blues.
Hello Mrs. K,
Thanks. We aim to please.
Poison ivy--gack! Why is it so much more prevalent here in PA than anyplace else?! I swear, it's kudzu-like up here! Poor Meg. And how heroic of her to chop that straw. And what a gorgeous potato bed and trellis you all have for all yoru trouble! So, look: You have the photos. Why don't you write an article on what you all are doing for Mother Earth News or Fine Gardening? Your approach is unique, and I know it would appeal to tons of other food gardeners. It's inspiring!
Hey Ben,
The poison ivy seems to be pretty bad this year. However, the garden is shaping up nicely and we just need to play the waiting, weeding, and debugging game until the harvests begin.
We have thought about sending something in to Mother Earth News and a few other publications, but it never really transpires into anything (obviously). Thank you though for the vote of confidence. Perhaps we'll motivate ourselves to do something for print this Summer.
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