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Winter blues

2K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  Bob Riebe 
#1 ·
Up here in the U.P winter is cold and snow...I no longer play in it so what’s a guy to do? Obviously most of you aren’t thinking of gardening (do to the lack of posts lol). Probably in Jan I will be going over my seeds and deciding where to plant what come end of May.

Years ago I got some legal size paper and drew up my back yard ( 6 raised beds, 9 grow boxes, 4 potato boxes made of pallets, and various strips of dirt along side sidewalks, basketball court (don’t ask me why I ever put in a 17x17 concrete basket ball court in a perfectly good garden space) etc. I try to “rotate my crops” so nothing is planted in the same place in consecutive years, except for peppers in the grow boxes and potatoes in the potato boxes.

Anyway, I plan out the garden on the sketches, decide how many plants of each etc...and usually change my mind a couple of times lol, but it gives me something to do and look forward to the promise of spring.

Long
 
#4 ·
I am envious! I crawled into a tree stand at 6AM Saturday morning with the temp at 5 degrees and the wind blowing straight from the North Pole. I have one more tag to fill and I hate leaving tags unfilled. I sat there in the cold thinking of all of the projects that I should be doing. Finish putting trim around the new floor in the dinning room, cut about three more loads of wood to get through the winter, reload all of those rifle and pistol cases that I emptied last summer, sharpen that pile of saw chains, it's time to change oil in the vehicles again.......you get the idea....I'm just not wired to sit still long enough to get bored...can't happen. I wish it could, especially as I'm getting older and my abilities lack behind my drive! My dad used to be able to work on a big puzzle for 8 hours a day....so what's wrong with me? Oh yeah I need garden seeds too!
 
#6 ·
Well I have started to make out my seed list and plan out the garden, which will get planted around the end of May. But I did find something else to while away my time......you tube gardening programs. Been looking at the potato growing ones, especially the container ones. I've had mixed results with Yukons and Pontiac Reds. Always do much better just planting them in the ground, but with limited space containers have been my typical go to.

Long
 
#13 ·
What size containers, potatoes like space.
I have been planting potatoes for forty plus years and have tried many of the whizz-bang wonder methods, in a garden , but nothing works better than planting deep, 8 inches minimum, and spacing widely.
I have found in the past decade that piling mulch, I use leaves from my rose bed but do bag some just for potatoes at times, in a layer twelve to sixteen inches deep over the potato bed.
By fall the leaves are down to and inch or so or for all practical purposes gone.

I have heavy black gumbo, in one garden , and sandy clay in the other.
The gumbo is slightly acidic and that garden always yields slightly better but is more labor to work when digging.
I have used well over a dozen varieties of potatoes but have found reds less inspiring than white or yellow types.
Purple Peruvian fingerling are the best tasting without exception; in good soil then can get eight inches long and two inches in diameter.
 
#7 ·
My catalogs have started to trickle in.
I have ordered some corn for next year but the potato catalogs have not arrived yet.
I am going to put in a new rose garden for the last time next year; if they do not take they will be the last.
May start some tomato seeds in the basement this year for the first time in twenty years, just to see why I quit doing it the first time.
There are plenty of seed catalogs out there yet but only about half as many at fifteen years ago and too many are now just owned by another company so same crap different pile.
 
#8 ·
It warmed up to the low 60* today, started pruning the apple trees today. We have about twenty fruit trees hope to have them all pruned by the end to the month. As soon as it is dry enough I will turn the cover crop in, and work in some compost. Garlic is up and doing well. Probably cut and burn the asparagus stalls tomorrow and lay on some compost.
 
#10 ·
I meant to type cut and burn the stalks. In February I will cut the stalks or ferns if you will, lay them on top of the rows and set afire. I will then add an inch or so of fresh compost and river sand to the rows.
For weeds I will apply Treflan,( pre-emergent) in March to all the garden plots. The rows in my garden rows are spaced so I can get my old Maxim tiller with cultivator attachment between the rows. Still have to use a hoe here and there during the season. My biggest weed problem is bermuda grass so in early April before I plant I spray round up to the perimeter of all the gardens. I do not like using chemicals and use them sparingly.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the info caddomike. I get a lot of quack grass from the neighbors yard and it drives me nuts all summer. Also get "wild flower" seeds coming up quite often. NOTE-if you plant wild flowers you will have them all over your yard for the rest of your life from the seeds scattering.

Long
 
#17 ·
SWEEEET!
It has been a lot of years since I had potatoes that big; I bought some Luther Burbank, the white ones not Russet, and they were huge but that was 30 years ago.
Have not seen that variety since then.
Last summer some of my potatoes in my North garden had a huge yield, ther were a new type for me Dakota Pearl.
The closest I have come to that mob of Ozettes was on occasion my Peruvian Purples will give me one hald that much, good job Master Gardener!
Did your Ozette spread out wide?
My PP like to cover an area about two feet wide.
 
#18 ·
Had two strains of Ozette's, one was short and wide, small foliage with thin stems, the other was just the opposite, tall narrow (42" T), heavy stalks. The latter did well, the hill was spread out about 22 inches and down about 8 inches directly under the plant tapering up to the outside. The other Ozette's only had about 4 lbs of spuds per hill (and small). I've been planting the same Russets for 6 years, they just keep getting larger, bought the seed potato's from Walmart (LOL). Want to try some purple spuds next year. I only live about 39 miles from the Makah Indian Reservation and Lake Ozette where these spuds originated.

I use NuLife Organic Planting Compost. I put a hand full in the hole and mix well (the discoloration on the potato's is from the compost), soak the hole with water, drop in the seed spud and cover.

Michael
 
#22 ·
What size potatoes do you get with that tight spacing.

Twelve inches between plants is the recommended minimum for average size and sixteen inches between plants for large potatoes.
I have space so mine are sixteen inches apart for most and larger for finger type potatoes .
 
#24 ·
I ordered my potatoes this year at a time for me, that is early.

This year:
Butterfly
Lily
Harvest Moon
Island Sunshine -- One I have wanted for quite a while but the only person that had them for years was more than even I would spend.
Purple Peruvian
Gourmetessa
White Giant
All Blue
Peruvian Sunrise

I got five from Maine Potato Lady, three from Rocky Mountain Organics but ordered the last one because Irish Eyes sent me a E-mail sales offer, including onions.
This is what really annoys me, ALL the onions were sold out the same day I got the offer.
 
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