I Yam What I Yam
Dug the last of the sweet potatoes today, about 75 or 100 lbs. total. Largest single tuber weighed in at 7 lbs and that was after a mole ate maybe a pound of it. We named it Moby Yam and gave it as a door prize at Happy Hour last Monday. Overall the sweet potatoes were a roaring success. (They don’t actually roar, more of a low gurgling sound.)
Still got 3 of 8 rows of regular potatoes to dig and that will be it for this summers garden other than a few radishes. I left three or four radish plants to go to seed, they grew about 4 feet tall and seeded a large area. Those secondary radishes are tasting pretty good now. I failed at root cellar building this summer, but did finally get a good well house built and it has a pit where the potatoes, sweet and sour, can live until eaten. Cellar is job one for next summer.
Only major failure was squash, I guess the borers got them as all the plants died. I planted them same place as last year and that was likely a dumb move. I hope to get the garden disked this weekend which will put me way ahead of last year when winter is over, which will be surprisingly soon..
The garden area, previously noted as having been a hog lot for about 30 or 40 years, is astonishingly fertile and anything planted will grow. Now if I can get that harvesting and storing thing figured out, all will be well.
Attention now turns to cutting wood for the solar heater. I believe that I have perfected the low tech version of solar heat. The sun shines on trees, they grow, I cut them and burn them to harvest the stored heat. Solar panels, pipes, glass, fans, and all the other silly details are thus eliminated (and will be consigned to "Stuff that is Silly").
Upon review, this post is not what you would call very exciting stuff. I guess you can’t be excited (or exciting) all the time. For what it’s worth, there is a decent sized snake living in the above mentioned well pit. He occasionally excites some folks.
Still got 3 of 8 rows of regular potatoes to dig and that will be it for this summers garden other than a few radishes. I left three or four radish plants to go to seed, they grew about 4 feet tall and seeded a large area. Those secondary radishes are tasting pretty good now. I failed at root cellar building this summer, but did finally get a good well house built and it has a pit where the potatoes, sweet and sour, can live until eaten. Cellar is job one for next summer.
Only major failure was squash, I guess the borers got them as all the plants died. I planted them same place as last year and that was likely a dumb move. I hope to get the garden disked this weekend which will put me way ahead of last year when winter is over, which will be surprisingly soon..
The garden area, previously noted as having been a hog lot for about 30 or 40 years, is astonishingly fertile and anything planted will grow. Now if I can get that harvesting and storing thing figured out, all will be well.
Attention now turns to cutting wood for the solar heater. I believe that I have perfected the low tech version of solar heat. The sun shines on trees, they grow, I cut them and burn them to harvest the stored heat. Solar panels, pipes, glass, fans, and all the other silly details are thus eliminated (and will be consigned to "Stuff that is Silly").
Upon review, this post is not what you would call very exciting stuff. I guess you can’t be excited (or exciting) all the time. For what it’s worth, there is a decent sized snake living in the above mentioned well pit. He occasionally excites some folks.
posted by tickmeister at 7:58 PM
5 Comments:
Far as I know, a yam is a sweet potatoe and vice versa. I planted the kind that they had at the local greenhouse, 2 different varieties, no idea what. One had darker green leaves that the other and one made darker red sweet potatoes. I suppose I should pay more attention. I planted acorn, spaghetti, and yellow squash, but as noted, none produced. I will do a slightly smaller and better attended garden next year.
I'd just like to say that Kim and I have NEVER, EVER got more than a few zuccini squash before the squash bugs eat the roots. It's damned frustrating. Somehow they know that there is good eating, even in a 10' x 5' city vegetable bed. I've sprayed, prayed and paid way too much for useless products and still the bugs kill off our squash. It makes me wonder how we are able to buy them in the grocery store for a reasonable price. Or is $2.00 for a zuccini a good price?
Up until this year, I have always had a huge harvest of squash. When you have a couple hundred of them growing, $2.00 seems way high. I guess if you have none and are desperately craving a Zuccini fix, $2.00 is dirt cheap.
Hey, all---
Dale, reading about labors on the farm is somehow profoundly peaceful when you're living in the big city. And working in the depressing suburbs.
But I'm a homeowner now and I have a flat roof --- my secret plan is to start a garden up there. I'm planning to build a box, maybe a couple of rectangular boxes, fill them with dirt, and grow stuff. I'm guessing my only predators will be squirrels who can jump from the power line to my roof. Here are the things I'd like to grow: green beans, lettuce, zucchnini, spinach, maybe even onions. Peppers, too.
Any thoughts on how I should construct a box? Or what I'd have best luck at growing in the northern midwest? Or what kind of crop squirrels are not interested in?
If I was gonna' put boxes on the roof and go to all the work to haul dirt up there, I'd go ahead and put lids on them with glass and or screens, thus converting them to mini-greenhouses. Then you could grow anything you wanted to grow as well as isolating your plants from critters. You could also make a redworm bed with one box and use it to compost food scraps and generate fertilizer. I did that years ago in a different life. Sounds like a great project.
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