Po-tay-toes

[ursulas_alcove]

The potatoes and onion sets arrived on Saturday. That same night was a hard freeze. It could be our last. It's very hard to tell. We have a week of decent weather ahead. I spent the day cutting up a pallet. Then I worked on Bed #2. It's weeded, cinderblocks have been leveled. Soil has been leveled with compost added. The first bag of onions is mostly planted. I ran out of space. The yellow onion sets are called Stuttgart. I hope to plant the rest in the cinderblock holes. I just ran out of soil and need to go scrape more off of the hugel bed.

My goal right now is to plant 10 potatoes a day until they are all planted. I save potatoes to plant but I wanted a bigger yield this year. So, I bought some. They are called Lehigh, similar to Yukon Golds. The bag was huge. Unfortunately the potatoes haven't chitted yet. I put them under a grow light to hopefully get something going. Meanwhile, I am working on the grow bags and pots of my own seed potatoes. I have blue viking, purple majesty, raspberry, French fingerlings, and a red variety. We also have 4 straight days of rain in the forecast. I want to get a few more things planted before then. Unfortunately, tomorrow I'll be hanging out at the garage for state inspection.

The grow room is also hopping. I planted tomatoes, nasturtiums, alyssum, Thai basil and blue salvia. Salvias are excellent for the hummingbirds. For tomatoes, I am concentrating on paste tomatoes, Amish, Roma, and San Marzano. For eating on sandwiches, I planted an Heirloom variety from the food co-op from saved seed. Once the week moves into the rain, I'll be up-potting some seedlings. I need to review what I already planted to see what I missed. I won't plant any cucurbits until mid-April, likewise Sunflowers and other fast growing plants. That gives me time to finish building the additional garden beds.

Here's a video of what I got done so far:
https://youtu.be/0nMdoQk49Co?si=hVSjzwbRJUVZpljU

You may wonder why I am getting rid of the hugel bed. The answer is simple. I need a fence to keep out the deer. While it may look like a fence could go along the retaining wall, the property line is actually right through the center of the hugel mound. The hugel mound was built in 2015. There is a lot of good soil there to be harvested. Since the deer do not bother the potatoes, the grow bags can go on the other side. My problem will be watering that far from the house. It's possible to tip the garage gutter to collect rain up the hill. It's a matter of if the rain barrels are taller than the gutter. It could be tricky since the garage is built into the hill. The gutter needs work anyway. I'll have to play around, assuming the skunks are gone. I think I still have one skunk in the front yard.

Squirrels are also my bane. Already 4 onions were dug up. I laid the chicken wire fence on top of the bed, flat to discourage them. I also put down straw so I could see where they dug, especially in the cinderblock holes. Today I finished planting bed #1 with just beets. I put an old oven rack on top of those to prevent digging.

Comments

[haertstitch]

one of the trees- the curley willow
had saw dust on the back of the stump
and it started to breakdown all on its own

so if next time you start making saw dust
start putting it on your stump
it made it disintegrate very well.

Good tip

[ursulas_alcove]

I also heard that vinegar works if put in pre-drilled holes. If I had the money, I'd drill and throw in mushroom plugs. Fungi do wonders to destroy stumps. My main goal is to get that fence up.

[sister_raphael]

You've got so much done! I love gardening and squirrels, but we have more of a possum problem.

[ene_thing]

Your grow room should smell delightful with the herbs and flowers! We discovered we have a raccoon in the area and are hoping its just waking up or passing through, not planning to move in. The mound sounds like a great source of rich soil. We had a few weed piles that decomposed well enough for the purpose after a couple years, but they were tiny.

Trash Pandas

[ursulas_alcove]

I really hope they don't stick around. Don't throw cheese or milk products in the compost. We had a heck of a raccoon fight over some cheese I threw out for the cats. We live too close to the park and they always manage to find food scraps.

Yes, there never seems to be enough compost. Typically the pile will go down to a quarter of its original height when fully decomposed.

[ursulas_alcove]

New Zealand or American possums? I've worked with possum yarn from NZ before. I've heard about how much of a pest they are. American possums at least don't get rabies and they eat a lot of bugs. What do your possums do that makes them a pest?