Discussion: Eulogy for the spuds

They were so young *sniff* So full of life. They had such a healthy, green tone. The disease ran its course and all that remains now are a few new leaf sprouts, fighting against their inevitable demise. Before and after photos:




I dug up half of one container and got two small but nice looking pink potatoes. Might get one meal out of the three containers :( Its probably best to dump them all out now to prevent any airborne spread to the tomatoes. Or maybe try another round of beets in the containers. Better luck next year.

The beets are doing well - the largest plants are swelling up now. The onions have set early, and some of the garlic is ready to harvest. I cut all the scapes last weekend and made pesto with almonds.

Cato caught another chipmunk Sunday morning. I let him out and within just a few minutes he was back at the door with a critter in his mouth. It managed to get away and went inside the tomato enclosure, then climbed up to the top of one of the netting posts. It was all good fun until the cat started pulling down the netting and I had to intervene. I chased it out with a broom and Cato caught it again. Not sure what happened after that. The cat sat on it for a while, but I never found a body. I suspect it escaped under the deck.

After 3 years of trying he's finally having good success this year, protecting the vegetables from the little beasts.

4 confirmed voles
1 confirmed and 1 unconfirmed chipmunk
1 unknown (possibly the other chipmunk - it was dark out)
An uncountable number of bugs. He especially likes crane flies.

The chipmunks have been getting into the birdseed stores in the garage, despite my best efforts to lock down the container. Then they get into areas of the car and leave seeds. I've found piles of sunflower seeds under the spare tire. They've also chopped down my sunflower and butternut seedlings some years. I've taken to netting them until they're tall enough to survive. The squirrels do provide entertainment for the cat, but I'd be happy to see them go. I just wish he'd do something about the deer!

Wait, you sat on your watch? What kind of crazy, aerobic Twister games are you guys playing? I guess that's better than sitting on someone else's watch :)

Oh no, those beautiful potatoes! Do you know what it was? Everything in mine is going okay except the beets, which are still suffering from leaf miners. Neem seems to have stopped the tomato problem, but I haven't been able to use it as directed for the beets because of all the rain. Peas are taller than me now, flowers are out and pods are appearing. Squashes are going great guns, but the warm weather stuff like peppers is looking a bit stunted, thanks to the cool weather so far.

Rosie is slowly turning into an attack cat. To my great surprise she almost got a squirrel who was a bit careless. She stalks birds but she's not successful. Clem just sits there looking confused, but seeing them both outside is lovely. I think I might have rabbits - something very cleanly snipped the top off my sage seedling a week or so ago, but I managed to revive last years so it didn't matter too much.

Everything is in serious need of a weed, but there's been no dry time at home this week! At least I'm not having to water anything...

Yes, cool and very wet. Just had another torrent this morning. I've got butternuts started along the fence line, but they're just getting going. First year I got a dozen nice ones. Last year just a single squash, no thanks to the chipmunks and wilt. Wet weather is a pain. What kind of peas are you growing? I was thinking of trying snap peas sometime. I grew asian long beans (pole beans?) last year. They were very prolific, but I don't like them much. Still lots left in the freezer. Might try some other type of green bean. They take up loads of space though. I need to find a better place for them. Probably on the fence where the butternuts are would be a good spot. My peppers are *teeny tiny*. I started from seed in Feb, but they are still barely 3" tall in the beds. They're painfully slow even in good years. I like to cook with green and red peppers, but I have yet to get satisfactory yields from my garden. But when you let one of your own grow all the way to red (you have to if you want viable re-planting seeds) - oh man are they sweet!! I only got one all the way to red last year. They always seem to get an insect hole and then rot before getting that far. I now understand why red peppers cost so much more than the green ones at the store.

The potatoes had early blight. I started spraying with neem, which seemed to stop the spread of the blight spots and everything looked good, but then all the green went out of the plants and they just look generally pale now. So I don't know whether the blight went systemic, they had a reaction to my heavy neem treatment, or something else got them when then were weak. There don't appear to be any other outward signs of sickness - they just look anemic.

in our garden its feckin wood pigeon.
last year they ate our redcurrants (whilst Kate was at the garden centre to buy some netting!)
in February they ate our cabbages
they strut about with this - "hmmm what's to eat today " look on their faces
the answer, my fine feather friends, is, you!
I'm going to trap 'em,
then I'm going to eat 'em

by the way Becks, just finished off that jar of green tom-art-o chutney that you bought us - it was delicious !

Get bush peas and beans. We've been picking bush snap peas for about a week. Nice in salads. Haven't started beans yet - waiting for room. Picking the head lettuces between the cabbage now so soon will. And then the cabbages will go for more room.

We have had problems with voles in the past but no sign this year. Planted beets and chard, one of their favorites, in boxes and seems to be working. Also no chippies since we stopped feeding the birds after the last bear sighting. Squirrels also are missing. Maybe the fox. Hope it keeps the deer away. Need to respray but too wet.

Well, its not as bad as I had feared. Here's the haul from one container. The other two seem to be leafing out again with new green leaves. I think I'll let them go a while longer and see what happen.

Also pulled up 8 or 9 garlic plants that were going brown early. They all had bulb rot :(. There were a few of these last year, but those were all late. I thought I had just left them in the ground too long. So either its the sopping wet soil or there's some nasty in the soil causing it. I'll have to rotate fully out of this bed next year. The remaining plants still look ok. A few more weeks until harvest if all goes well.