The Potatoes Are In!

• High:  60
• Low:  38
• Clear, Windy

Well, I'm a couple of days late, but we did get the potatoes planted before the rain came on Sunday.  I wish I could also say I got plenty of pictures of the process we used......but I did not.  I did, however, get a picture of my littlest helper:

Mr. S helped too, but more often than not he refuses to be photographed.  Here Little S was using his own garden hoe to help us turn the dirt in the bed.  We added compost and some more garden dirt to the bed and turned it all in, then planted the two types of potatoes, in two long, hilled rows.  The bed for the potatoes this year is only a 3x5, so we opted for just single rows of each type.  We chose Yukon Gold and French Fingerlings for our potatoes.  I didn't want to do Kennebecs because we can get them anytime from the store and really have nowhere to store them through the winter.  So we're doing this smaller amount of potatoes that we can likely consume before winter.

The garden paths and beds are still quite wet (we'd covered the potato bed in black plastic to heat it up througout this past week so it was good and dry).  I think we might be jumping the gun yet, but everything says that potatoes go in early, so by goodness, they're in early.  I'm trying to gauge when the peas need to go in, which should be relatively soon - cool weather plant and all.  These two cold weather starters we've never had luck with, as I've said before.  I fully expect the heavens to open up and unleash torrential downpours anytime, as has happened in past years when we've attempted potatoes.  They all rotted in the ground, of course, the poor, waterlogged things.

I need to dig out my good SLR camera and take pictures more often through this year - but I think it's missing parts.  Might be a project for this weekend.  After the Easter festivities, of course.

Dreary Week and Randomness

This week has mostly been very cloudy and rainy, and we're supposed to have chances of snow tonight.  Low of 18 tomorrow night.  BLECK.  We are still plugging ahead on our garden plans, however.  Last frost last year was April 18th and that'll be upon us in no time.

The potatoes have been curing since Sunday and are looking sealed over.  We've never done this step when we've attempted potatoes in Illinois so maybe that's why we never were able to succeed with them.  :)  It looks like next week should see a steady increase in temperatures, so the peas and onions will be going in the next few weeks as well.  We've never succeeded with peas either, but we have always planted them in late spring when we plant out everything else and it was always too warm.

We did onions last year and actually managed a pretty good crop......which we never got around to curing so that they could be stored in the basement - they ended up rotting and we had to toss them out.  :(  What a waste!  I am hoping this year to put a little more effort into the harvesting and make sure we have as little waste as possible.  Don't get me wrong, we processed ALOT of food last year - between freezing, canning, and drying, we had quite a harvest.  So essentially I'm doing more research. :)  Our garden was actually quite prolific last year and I'm hoping to continue that trend with some of the new plants we're attempting and with the addition of the herb bed.  (I'm very excited about the new herbs!)

Herbs are kind of my "thing" in the garden - at our old house I had herbs mixed in with the border beds as well as in raised beds near the kitchen.  I love them dearly.  People ask me why I like herbs so much and I think its the same as with the vegetables and why I love the potager gardens so much - they're useful.  And in the case of the potagers, pretty.  Useful and visually pleasing is the whole package.  Even if all we do is add the herbs to our dinners or dry them for later use, its satisfying to know that we are using the product of our hard work.

I am working on some of my problem health conditions so perhaps I won't be as tired and sick every night when I come home from work and will be able to get something done! Heat is always a problem for me in the days of summer and fall that are primarily harvest time.  I tend to work in the garden after 8:00 PM on weeknights or before 10:00 AM on the weekends, but even then sometimes the heat is too much and triggers migraines. Then I don't get anything done for two days.  :(  We'll see if the new therapies will be helpful.

So in closing, we're hanging in there, waiting anxiously for true Spring!

The start of a new year!

The 2015 growing season has started for us here in Indiana - or very nearly.  We've had several random days of wonderful weather and despite the rain (and maybe snow!) to come, we're making plans.  Mr. S and I have been hard at work planning the rotation of our raised beds and contriving layouts for a new, exclusively herb bed.

One of the surprising things about gardening that I've learned over the years is the benefits of a good and continually kept garden journal.  I used to think the concept was silly, and never thought I'd use it, let alone keep it maintained.  However, I've found that the exact opposite is true.  It's really come in handy!  Mine is a vibrant green, blank, lined journal I found at a local big box store and it's worked marvelously.  Its nothing fancy, so I'm not worried about it getting ruined by being outside and in the dirt.  The bright color means I can usually find it after I've carried it around the house/yard/garage, and it can fit in my purse if we go to the nursery and I need to consult.  We have really come to depend on it, especially as we are beginning our planning for the year.  I recorded the high and low temperatures for much of the early part of last year's spring season, so we have something to go on in regards to frost dates for this year.

This week's tasks include:

• Cutting and curing the seed potatoes for planting (hopefully) next weekend.
• Aerating the lawn
• Fertilizing the acid loving rhododendrens as well as the azaleas, roses, and bulbs. 
• Planning, planning, planning

We are pleasantly surprised that the irises and the 200 tulips we planted last fall are starting to come up.  We were afraid that the irises were planted too late as the rhizomes had become quite dry by the time we got around to planting.  It looks like some survived after all!

We're holding off on cleaning the borders out and removing the winter cover of leaves, etc. as the weather is supposed to stay cool for the next week at least.  Hopefully more to come very soon!