Saturday, September 17, 2011

Potatoes and Precipitation~

Ok—so I’ve planted the front bed already with green beans and the grasshoppers ate those. 
I’ve also planted, in the front bed;  spinach, carrots, and leaf lettuces. I’ve not seen anything else come up yet on those plants. We’ll see what happens there.
As for the kitchen garden—potager—I’m planting potatoes in the morning! The research I’ve done so far says to plant Fall potatoes in Texas about mid-August to mid –September.  I figure we’ve had triple digits again this week—so maybe I’m not too late.
Here is what I’ve done so far:
FALL POTATOES 005  I found the potatoes with the most eyes-- 
FALL POTATOES 003
…just a couple of examples.
FALL POTATOES 007
  I cut them; making sure to leave a couple of eyes to each piece of potato. I laid them out on paper to cure.
FALL POTATOES 009
You can see that the moisture is going out of them by this evening.
I’ll be putting them in the ground in the morning. I was reading an article at Backwoods Home—and the author of that article (Robert L. Williams)  suggested adding a little bit of leaves or pine needles to the whole hole when planting the potato—providing nutrients and warmth as the roots begin to grow.  He lives in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  As I’ve not ever done this before; I thought I may give it a try. I don’t think it would hurt seeing how our soil is so dry and more than likely lacking nutrients from such a dry and hot summer! 
Speaking of hot, dry Texas weather.  We’ve had to small showers in the last 3 days.  Wed. night it sprinkled VERY LIGHTLY for about 30 – 45 mins.  and tonight around 10 pm it was raining and I could smell the rain in the air.  I love the fragrance it made as it mixed with the soil. 
It was very pleasant.
I’m joining Farm Girl Friday #24

God bless you and Thanks for reading.
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4 comments:

Brenda Pruitt said...

Love to know how this project turns out!
Brenda

camp and cottage living said...

I've never heard of adding pine needles or leaves to potatos. Let us know how that turns out! I had a subscription to 'Backwoods' for years and loved it.
Take care-Kimberly

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

We've planted potatoes for 2 years now. I finally had enough this season to dice, blanch and freeze for hashbrowns. I love having them and so will you. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

What a good idea! I'm going to give it a try too....I've never grown a garden or potatoes....this should be interesting....Mel's Designs from the Cabin....Mel