How NOT to grow potatoes

Some things I just have to learn the hard way...

Amongst the any other "firsts" this year, I decided to plant potatoes. I had not tried them before now because they are root vegetables and I didn't have the soil in my beds turned deep enough. This year I decided to give it a whirl anyway. I love to eat potatoes!

I decided to grow Blue Caribe because they are drought resistant and Nebraska can get very dry. At the time I had not yet invested in my sprinkler hose system. I only bought one small bag of seed potatoes from my favorite local nursery and I planted them in my corner bed which is an odd L shaped bed for which I did my best to raise mounds. They were not very high mounds though, and in my typical fashion I planted closer than suggested. The plants were slow to start but when they poked through I did my best to hoe the soil despite the close quarters.

In April we had the crazy heat wave in the plus 100F's and the potato plants were not looking good. It was too hot early in their getting established and I wasn't sure that they were going to make it. Fortunately that spell only lasted 3 days and the plants did recover.

Here's the plants on June 4th

By the middle of June I gave up any attempts to hoe, the plants were huge! I had no idea they would get that tall or bushy. I don't recall my grandfathers potato plants ever getting like that. Maybe it was the potato variety, soil, watering system, or even the climate. Whatever the case, I could barely get to the side of the raised bed, let alone get to the soil to hoe it.

I decided to let fate be what it may. This is what they looked like on July 1st

In the middle of July we went away for two weeks vacation during what turned out to be an extended extreme heatwave. When we returned at the end of July, that was it. There was nothing but some dead stalks lying on the ground. Knowing that the potatoes would likely still be under there I set to work digging up what I could find.... And did I ever!

Here's the devastation left by the heatwave

In the end I harvested 2/3rds of a paper bag of beautiful potatoes that are the best tasting I have had in a long time.

My family enjoyed a pan of oven roasted potatoes and they disappeared fast. That paper bag of potatoes is not going to last long enough for us.

 I'm am thoroughly pleased with the harvest and will be planting lots more next year, although in a different bed. This time I think I'll try the idea of growing them in a recycled WholeFoods bag with holes in the bottom.  Dumping that out to get the potatoes will be a whole lot less work than digging deep. And, I will definitely be taking into account that "drought resistant" does not mean "heat resistant"!

Taming of the Shrew

Ok, I've never read the book and I'm taking an educated guess that it has nothing to do with gardening but that thought was what kept going through my mind as I tackled the garden.

We had gone away on a long vacation during what turned out to be an extended heatwave with temps in the 100F's. Fortunately I have the garden on a timer with sprinkler hoses so all but the furthest corners were watered well each morning. Returning from vacation I came back to an overgrown jungle.

Notice the 6 foot privacy fence and how tall everything is in relation to it!

This mess is the before picture, there's a walkway in there that you can't get to because of the tomatillo's and tomatoes.

And this is the after...

The herb garden was a mess gone wild...

And still is, this weekend I will be doing some serious weeding and Pesto making..

The patty pan squash has only produced one to harvest but is loaded in flowers, I think I may need to eat the flowers instead.... and the zucchini is out of control! Not producing much but a plant out of control!

My potato plants did not survive the extreme heat but I dug up what was left of the plant and am happy to say that I got way more than I expected for my first adventure with potatoes, so all's good :)

The most interesting new adventure is that some of my kaliedoscope carrots have gone to seed. I've never had this happen before but likely due to the type of seed I've planted. These were heirloom seeds and I'm guessing more apt to seed than the former hybrid's and organic's I've grown. I think I'll see if I can harvest them.

My shade bed made out well in the heat, probably thanks to the shade. 

I'm happy to say that despite the neglect and extreme heat, the garden is still doing well.... and keeping me very busy, I'll be canning and freezing on a regular basis for the rest of the season!