Sunday, July 22, 2012

Peppers take a walk

The tomatoes are too tall. The Marigolds are too darn bushy. The potatoes are done. Liberate as many spuds as you can find. Work the clayey soil. Mutter to yourself for the fact you might have gotten 20lbs of spuds. Haven't weighed it. Either a 2-1 or 3-1 ratio. Thinking to yourself whether you had to fertilize more or water, or the heavy soil. Shrug it off. Dig up the various peppers being enclosed upon and give them a new home. Moist and call it a day.

Aerial - Pepper Movement | Tomato encroachment
Hmm... I'm not sure what happened.

10 comments:

  1. They actually look pretty good for first time. I add alot of peatmoss and vermiculite to my clay soil to lift it up and let potatoes grow well. Just don't add too much nitrogen or manure or you'll get scabbers on your spuds. And no such thing as too tall tomatoes - they'll keep producing until frost. :)

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  2. Yes, like Jenny said, i love that you've done so well the first time. I had tomatoes 2 years ago and they got so huge and bushy like yours but they just kept producing and producing. We have clay soil down here and I'm wanting potatoes. I had ready about building 'up' in a container of some sort and using an amended soil. Not sure what I'll do. Let us know if you figure out what works best.

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    1. Perhaps the better option is to lay down several layers of newspaper,potato seed directly onto it, then a thick layer of broken up straw, add compost and rock dust all over it, then more straw. Water etc. As the grow up you can add more straw around them. One video I saw doing this method was quite impressive. Made it quite easy to 'dig' them up as well.

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  3. I think for your first time doing this, you're doing a great job! I've never had much potato success over here, either. You know the potato capital of MI is up in Posen (near Alpena). I wonder what Posen has that A2 and suburban D does not.

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    1. Not sure. :) I still have to dig up those from the 100sf area in the back. Then tally everything up. How is the garden going on the more eastern side?

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  4. i have only one piece of advice re:potatoes and that is TIRE GARDENING! we have been doing it for years and our worst years harvest was 120lbs of potatoes!!! you can check our blog to see pics and how to do it and whatnot. i will check back here if you have any specific questions...or better yet - send me an email at kymberzmail@gmail.com

    if you are worried that the tires will be unsightly to neighbours - put them in the backyard. you can grow a ton of potatoes in tires in very little space because you stack the tires.

    kymber

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    1. When I think reusing tires, I think of earth ships first. :)

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    2. oh i love earth ships - they are so awesome! wish i lived in a climate where it would be feasible! heck wait a sec - maybe i do?!?!? i am gonna check into this idea some more. i always thought earth ships would only work in the south but that was when i lived in a city where -40C was the norm - it is much more temperate here. thanks for the idea!

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    3. Actually earthships works practically everywhere. After all, every home could use more insulation or in this case its actually thermal mass. The only modifications they do on them for extreme winters such as northern canada is to add a second green house in front of the first in order to moderate it between the outside and the interior. :)

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  5. I'm with Jenny and 1st Man. I think you did well. Do I remember rightly that you used store purchased spuds. If so, that could have slowed production significantly. My fingers are crossed for our potatoes. I'm digging one bed up this week. We have clay issues too.

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