Garden 2015: Trash Can Potatoes FAIL!

Potatoes...we could eat them for every meal. We like them best roasted with rosemary and just a sprinkle of salt. Sometimes I roast the potatoes with carrots and garlic to make this amazing potato soup.

Planting potatoes in my garden began to seem like a necessity considering how many we eat. Last year we got quite a few from our garden. This year, well, not nearly as many. I planted two different varieties: High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes and Organic German Butterball Potato. I decided to grow the Fingerlings in a trash can after I read how you could get 100 pounds of spuds. Supposedly the potatoes grow upwards as you add layers of dirt to plant growth, eventually filling the can with plenty of potatoes.

Supposedly. I'm not sure what went wrong. I filled the can with soil every 6 inches of plant growth, but it was mostly barren of potatoes. The very top of the can had tiny little spuds. They're so small they'll need to be roasted with the skin on, which will be tasty for sure. I just wish there were more of them.

Then there was over 2 feet of empty dirt. It was really compacted dirt, perhaps the result of too much rain this summer. Maybe the potatoes had a rough time growing in the harder dirt???

Several of the potatoes had weird little knobby bits on them. I should photograph them for one of those "Play with your food" style calendars.

The very bottom of the can had a few bigger potatoes. I barely got more potatoes out of the can than what I planted in it. This was disappointing considering how pricey the organic seed potatoes were. I could've purchased 50 pounds of potatoes from the produce aisle compared to what I paid for the seed potatoes.

I started with 6 Fingerling seed potatoes in the bottom of the can. 

And my final yield was pretty skimpy.

I forgot to take photos of the High Mowing potatoes that I planted in the garden. They didn't perform as well as the variety I planted last year, but they did a heck of a lot better than the trash can potatoes. I had one volunteer plant from a potato I missed in last year's garden that performed the best of all of the plants. It yielded eight huge potatoes about the size of my hand. All of the organic potato plants produced much smaller spuds and overall not as many.

So I guess I'll file the Trash Can Potato test under "Possible Fail." I don't know if it failed because of too much rain, the variety of potato, or something else. Maybe I'll try it again next year with a different potato variety.

Garden 2015: Yikes

Is my garden unruly because it's a jam packed raised bed or because I'm a lazy gardener? This year, my vote's on the latter. 

The tomatoes I planted using the Japanese ring method continue to make the rest of the tomatoes in my garden look like spindly little plants. The tomato in the tower to the left of the rings is maybe half the size of those around the ring. Unfortunately some of the other tomatoes behind the ring are dying, most likely because I had a volunteer potato take over. I should've pulled the potato early on considering that half of my garden this year is potatoes, but I find volunteer plants to be exciting even though they usually end up taking over everything like my volunteer pumpkins did last year.

You can barely see the cage the tomatoes are surrounding now.
They've grown above the cage and are bowing down into it now.

Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Kale (which has been picked by birds), Carrots, Endive, Tomatoes.
We ate a batch of greens yesterday with onions glazed in bacon grease. 

Black Krim Tomatoes.

Some green beans are ready to pick now. I don't have a pressure canner,
so I just freeze them or make a Pot 'O Beans in the pressure cooker.

Hey, volunteer Dill, big surprise ;) 

Tuna Fish Joe LOVES raw green beans.

Garden 2015: What A fine Mess I Have

Hey, my garden is really starting to shape up. It's a little crowded in a few spots because I have the bad habit of not pulling up volunteer plants. But at least I don't have hundreds of pumpkins growing in it this year.

It's been raining for almost a week straight here in Ohio, so the beans have gone crazy. They might have doubled in size since last week. I'm looking forward to pressure cooking them with bacon (or a ham bone), onions, and potatoes. My family ate this meal a ton as I was growing up. We called it "Pot 'O Beans." That sounds like a pretty unglamorous name, and honestly, it doesn't look that fancy in a bowl either. But it tastes great even though it's pretty simple.

My grandpap used to shake about a tablespoon of black pepper into his bean bowl. But he would miss half of the bowl because he had a bum arm. When we were done eating and cleaned the dishes up, we were always amused by the black pepper ring left on the table around his bowl. It looked like an eclipse.

So far it looks like my trash can potatoes are doing well. The plants actually look better than the variety I planted in the ground next to it. I've been filling the can with dirt every 6" of plant growth, so the can is nearly filled to the top now. I'm eager to see if the can gets 100 pounds of taters. I was skeptical that it would, so that's why I planted potatoes in the ground too.

Most of my tomatoes are around 3' feet tall now. There's a noticeable difference between the plants around the Japanese Tomato Ring structure and those in the towers. The tower plants seem dwarfed in comparison. They aren't nearly as tall, the stems are not as thick, and they don't have blossoms yet. All were started indoors at the same time. One of the tower plants died a week or so after I planted it, which is odd for my garden.

I have a big potato plant growing right next to my tomatoes. I probably should've pulled it, but I figured   1) there's nothing wrong with MORE potatoes  2) last year's crop did really great, so if the spud I forgot in the ground decided to grow, well, I should just let it  3) we REALLY like potatoes.

This year my lettuce bed has onions, volunteer dill, and several tomato plants. I planted dill once...5 years ago. It keeps growing everywhere. I used to pull it up, but then I ended up using it in a batch of dill pickles I made. So I just let it grow...and grow...and grow. I also use it freely in tuna salad.

Endive always does good in my garden. My husband despises it with a passion.

Kale. Another arch nemesis of my husband. I was hoping to dehydrate some of this to use in a green supplement powder, but it doesn't look like I have much to work with just yet.

I'm not sure what this little guy will grow into. I'm not sure if he's eating the dill plant or not. I have about 100 dill plants growing everywhere, so eat away little fellow. Let's hope he doesn't turn into something that devours my garden.

Garden 2015: Tomatoes and Potatoes, oh my

I have a few green things in my garden, yea! I got a really late start on lettuce this year, but I was surprised to see some green onions coming up in the lettuce patch already. I forgot that I put a few in last fall. Two of my Swiss Chard plants came back up, but they were pretty beaten up looking, so all that's left now are the stems which could still be used for stir fry or soup.

Lettuce & surprise green onions

I setup a trash can to plant potatoes in as I discussed previously in this post. I'm not sure how many seasons this plastic can will last since it's got to be the cheapest plastic can ever made. It's pretty thin plastic, but at least it's holding up so far. I drilled drainage holes all over the bottom and about 6" up on the bottom sides. Since I don't really have patio space for the can, I dug out a big hole in my raised garden bed to set the can in. Then I used the soil mixed with compost, vermiculite, and peat moss to fill the can. I have extra soil in my wheelbarrow that will get added to the can with every 6" of plant growth. In theory the potatoes will grow upwards and fill the can with produce. We'll see about that.

High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato

Organic German Butterball Potato

The trash can has High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes growing in it now. I also planted Organic German Butterball Potato outside in the raised bed just in case the trash can potato thing doesn't pan out.

Organic German Butterball Potatoes... looking good so far! 

High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato
and what looks like a ton of volunteer tomatoes.

The tomatoes that I started indoors are about 7" tall now. They've been outside hardening this week, so I'll be transplanting them in the garden very soon. I planted Amish Paste and Black Krim Tomatoes. I had a few extra plants, so I gave a Krim to my sister-in-law to try out. Some folks seem skeptical of black tomatoes, but I feel like I've raved about this variety a ton. It's one of my favorite tomatoes for eating. The paste tomatoes are typically what I use for my salsa.

Our new doggie Tuna Fish Joe loves to smell the tomato plants!

A few other things are coming up now too: Kale, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, & Carrots. I don't think my parsnips germinated again this year which is a shame because I LOVE parsnips.

Kale, my husband's arch nemesis... that & sweet potatoes.

2015 Garden

It's Tomato time again!!! Yea! I just started some of my tomatoes today. Since I usually have a number of volunteers from the previous year, I decided to scale back a little on the ones I start indoors. It's fun to see which varieties spring forth in the garden, although they usually tend to be cherry tomatoes. One cherry tomato plant is more than enough, but allowing the volunteers to live almost always means we have more than one cherry tomato plant.

My husband's cousin planted around 15 cherry tomato plants in her first garden. I'm not sure if she didn't realize how prolific cherry plants were or if she really just loved them. Near the end of the season, she was certainly sick of them. But she didn't want anything to go to waste, so she actually made salsa with a blue million cherry tomatoes by squeezing each little one out of their skin. That's a lot of work, but her salsa is the best I've ever had, so it was most likely worth it.

I think I finalized my garden plans. I say "think" because I usually chart my bed out, then once it's time for planting, I tend to toss my chart out and throw stuff wherever I want. So much for the planting chart :D

Here's what's going in this year:

• Scarlet Nantes Carrot
• Kuroda Long Carrot
• All American Parsnip (planting this last year, but it didn't take, so I have new seed to try)
• Red Winter Kale
• Frisee Endive
• Salad Blend Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson, Green & Red Salad Bowl, Marvel of Four Seasons, Bibb)
• Little Gem Romain Lettuce
• Green Towers Romain Lettuce
• Valentine Mesclun Lettuce
• Rainbow Blend Swiss Chard
• Amish Paste Tomato
• Black Krim Tomato
• Seed Savers Exchange Organic German Butterball Potato from City Folks Farm Shop
• High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato
• Provider or Blue Lake Green Bean
• Green onions

That sounds like a lot for a a 6' x 16' raised bed. I'll do succession planting for the lettuce and beans, then probably do some carrots in the fall. Hopefully I'll have a little more room in the garden since I'm hoping to plant the potatoes in a trash can so they can grow vertically. 

It's going to be a year for making salsa, so I plan to do at least 10 tomato plants. Amish Paste is a good solid tomato for salsa. Black Krim is the BEST tomato I've ever planted and really beautiful as well. 

A little bit of Endive and Kale goes a long way, so I don't plan to go crazy there. Although I may try to dehydrate my Kale this year to make my own green supplements, so maybe I can sneak in a few more plants than my husband would like.

I haven't planted the Rainbow Chard before, although I've purchased it at the farmer's market a few times. It's almost too pretty to eat. I'm not a "cut flower" kinda person, but I would totally put Rainbow Chard in a vase for a centerpiece. I've always had success with the Rhubard and Fordhook Chards, so I'm optimistic this variety will be a super star in the garden this year.

I can hardly wait for the season to start!!!

Pumpkins, and Potatoes, and More Pumpkins... oh my

I've mentioned a handful of times that my garden was a little out of control with volunteer pumpkins. That issue completely overshadowed the fact that I planted potatoes for the first time. I was excited when I put the seed potatoes in the ground because I wasn't sure what to expect. Growing up my family only planted potatoes a handful of times & it never worked out very well. I remember using a pitchfork to dig them up & spearing more than a few.

My dad mentioned we had issues with the seed potatoes rotting & that there were ways to avoid that when planting. I researched a few ways to plant spuds, but in the end, I kinda just threw them in the ground. Sometimes I over plan, get overwhelmed, then just wing it :D

I have only dug up a few plants so far, but we've gotten a bunch of really nice, large potatoes.  I thought maybe there would be more potatoes, but the pumpkins really did take over, so they probably hogged all the nutrients. I know several potato plants were consumed & covered by the pumpkin vines, so I doubt much will come from half of the plants.

Next on my garden cleanup agenda is to remove some of the gourds. Something got into a few of them, and seeds are spilling everywhere. I don't think I'll let a volunteer plant take over again next year, so the last thing I want is hundreds of seeds just sitting in the soil plotting their next takeover :D

The pumpkins were fun to watch grow & take over the fence though. We have gourds on both sides of the fence & they are actually still blooming. It's interesting that the plant mostly seemed to be producing the small decorative gourds, but a few of them are quite large like an actual carving pumpkin. I would have assumed that all of them would be the same small gourds.

Pumpkins on both sides of the fence...hope the neighbors don't mind.