Art Design 4 Garden

I had never grown potatoes before last year, but was inspired about how easily my colleagues had grew them in raised beds and straw bales. Theyre such fun to harvest -- magic to be discovering them underground. (If I needed to grow enough potatoes for us to eat all year, I wouldnt be so thrilled, however.) Digging beds for new potato patches was not too hard. My plan was to raise the clayey beds slightly, add plenty of compost, and other amendments, and mulch heavily with straw.


I ordered seeds from Wood Prairie Farm, an organic potato grower in Maine. These are basically potatoes ready to sprout, cut up, and plant. And if youre going to grow them, why not try purple, blue, red, fingerling, and gold varieties! And, the kicker is that home-grown potatoes are much more delicious than store-bought, although maybe its just the idea. They certainly seem crisper and fresher.

Both Roseval and King Edward which I grew from bought tubers had to be lifted mid-August due to continuous attack of blight. It would have been a magnificent haul if they could have been left to bulk up for another month as the average tuber count per plant was over 10, so about 400 from just 36 plants. The potatoes that I grew from TPS fared better and I left them in the ground until early October. Below are three that did very well and I will be growing again next year. Of course the Landrace seeds are a mixed bag so very unpredictable but Im going to save a few of these tubers to grow on as well. And the bottom picture is a selection of some of the ones that Ive grown on from saved spuds of previous Tom Wagner trials.

I felt nervous going out and picking some spinach from my cold frame. What a day!

I was flipping through a magazine and read about a recipe for new potatoes cooked on the grill. It looked really good so I thought I am going to investigate weather I have any potatoes under the massive potato plants. I crouched down and started digging with my hands, low and behold I found some. I then fired up the new grill and proceed to the kitchen to get these puppies going.

The recipe was for Parmesan New Potatoes and called for tin foil, olive oil, seasoning, new potatoes and parmesan cheese. I started by making a tin foil pouch, then add a few table spoons of olive oil and proceed with the new potatoes, halved/quartered if needed. Once this is done season with what ever you prefer and place them on the grill with an opening left in the foil pouch for the stem to escape. When you have about 10 minutes of grilling time left added the parm to the potatoes leaving just enough time for the cheese to melt and just start to get a little brown and crusty. They tasted great, are easy to make and defiantly worth sneaking a few potatoes from the garden.

Asides from harvesting the first few potatoes, I have also been busy with fall crops. I have started broccoli transplants for the third time, I really dont want to get into it but lets just say it was a combination of mother nature and my laziness. This time they are growing to grow and I have also mail ordered row cover to keep the cabbage butterflies off them once they are in the ground. I also direct seeded turnips yesterday and sprayed the cabbage butterfly larvae that are on my brussel sprouts. Arent bugs fun?

I have also been out with the camera again so here are a few more shots I have taken:

Winter has been so mild thus far that I decided to leave the oca underground until now. This is the crop of edible sized tubers that I dug yesterday and then there are many more pea sized ones which hardly seem worth washing. I have saved out several more that are covered in sprouts which I intend to pot up and keep frost free until spring.
I do think they look jolly appetizing.