Spotlight on Potatoes
I couldn't resist digging around the base of my potato plants to try and harvest a few young ones - and sure enough found a few of the early varieties (a toonie would have been helpful here, but FYI they were about 2 inches across). I roasted them and they were delicious:
1) Caribe: (purple potato) Early variety. Caribe is a high yeilding oblong potatoes. Excellent storage qualities and great for boiling.
2) Dark red norland: Early variety. Smooth red skin, shallow eyes white flesh. No internal defects, few irregular tubers. Some resistance to scab and rhizoctonia (black scurf)
3) Yukon Gold (??): received from my neighbour, can't remember which kind
Apparently, rather than pulling whole plant, you can dig around the base once they start flowering, and harvest the potatoes young. These "early" varieties according to my math should be ready to fully harvest in mid-August, so it's great to be able to pull a few ones even earlier.
Still remaining are a medium and late varieties, which will be ready in mid to late September!
4) All Red: Round tubers that are rated as medium to late maturity. This potato has a good yield with red skinned and distinctive red flesh tubers that maintain their color after cooking. It has an excellent flavor and a moist texture.
5) Shepody: Medium variety. Long tubers, white skin, white moist flesh medium deep eyes. Excellent tasting potato. Excellent for boiling, baking or french fries. Some resistance to rhizoctonia (black scurf).
Potatoes were bought from
Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes out in Alberta. Funny story... having no impulse control whatsoever, the moment I decided I wanted to grow potatoes I called the company, even though it was Easter Sundy. Surprisingly, an man answered and we proceeded to talk for an hour about potatoes. Sold.
Raspberries
It's raspberry time again!!
As usual, despite doing a good job of pruning the raspberries (both sides of the fence this year), I did a terrible job of staking them. I wait too long to do it, until they are flopping all over the place. At this point I try and make sense of it all, but it's gotten messy, some end up breaking, and there are crazy shoots all over the place. It looks terrible, and it makes picking the berries way harder than it has to be. Having said all this... I always get lots of raspberries, more than I need, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Rewind, press play. See you in 2009.
The Radish Principle
The Radish Principle states that whatever vegetable you are best at growing will likely be the one that the fewest people enjoy eatting. Anyone want 40 radishes?
Snow peas - found!!
I planted a few snow peas this year, in my herb garden along the fence, and didn't see much action at first. Some of the more aggressive herbs kind of took over, and I didn't think they stood a chance. But a few weeks ago I noticed a few shoots made it though, and yesterday I ate my first snow pea!!
Herb Garden:
Speaking of aggressive herbs, I need to move 2 monstrous plants were taking over: Lemon Balm and Oregano. I knew the oregano was a ticking time bomb, but I didn't read much about the Lemon Balm before planting it, and in one year it grew into a gigantic bush. I dug it up and moved it to it's own spot against the house. I will do the same with the oregano this weekend. The thyme and rosemary were completely strangling under it all, so hopefully this will give them some relief.
Veggie Garden: I now have an amazing cucumber trellis that my father-in-law built me!!
Perenial Bed #2:
And on a sad note, the perenial bed that I got looking so nice on the backside of the house was demo'd by 2 idiot dogs. I've installed a pretty ridiculous looking fence that should keep them out for now. I can't even post a picture, because I'm so aggravated, but the victims were my rhubard, one hosta, one balloon flower and one Icelandic poppy. I think they'll probably bounce back next year, but for now they look terrible. A snow ball was also chewed, but it sort of needed pruning anyway, so no harm, no foul.
Grow please!
I think today might be the day that the garden really starts growing - temperatures up to 25 degrees C, and sunny!
Potatoes and Tomatoes seem to be doing well (left side of garden)- a good ego boost for now, hopefully the final product will be as amazing as they look right now.
I've been hilling the potatoes which should increase the number of potatoes produced per plant - but I've run out of soil, so I must get more tonight.
The hot pepper plants have tiny little hot peppers starting, although the plant itself isn't that big yet... hopefully with some more hot weather, they will shoot up! These are plants given to me by my aunt. We had one plant last year that we inherited at the end of the season and kept in a pot through the fall, and these peppers are crazy hot!
I think I might have carrots afterall! I planted some radishes with the carrots because I've heard they will break up the soil and allow the delicate carrot seeds to break through more easily. I had given up, but I see there are some carrot tops emerging in the understory of the radish tops.
If all goes well these tiny tops will become delicious
Napoli carrots pictured below.
Garden 2008 is finally in
Once the rain stopped for more than a day at a time, I was finally able to get the garden planted with some help from mom and dad. The final layout is as follows, and is constructed of raised beds within the larger bed which is handy for keeping things organized. Tomatoes aren't labeled on the diagram yet, but there are roughly 11 varieties this year:
Here's how the garden looks in real life:
Some major trimming around the perimeter was done shortly after this was taken, and the garden is a little further along now. With a few more days of warm weather hopefully I'll have more to report on.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Onions, Hot Peppers, Squash, Celery and Radishes are doing well so far (fingers crossed).
Lettuce and beans are spotty (I re-seeded some bare spots today), but I think once it gets warmer, things will start to grow. Something is eatting the Chinese Green Tatsoi that I planted. I sprayed with insecticidal soap, but don't want to do too much - I'd rather stick to more resistant varieties than get into the chemicals too much.
Carrots are a disaster again - I re-seeded tonight and will pay close attention to watering over the next weeks while they germinate. Cucumbers weren't much better - only 2 plants came up, so my mom and dad nicely bought me some more at C.T. Next year I will start them inside a few weeks early to get them nice and strong before they go outside.
