Hi
Gardeners
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| Crocus |
We had some beautiful weather for a few days, with
temperatures in the high 70’s and boy did I get spoiled. Today it’s 60 and
foggy and damp feeling. Last week I
would have thought this was warm, today I’m chilly. Last week we also got just under 2 inches of
rain. Yesterday the predicted storms
went just to the north first and then just to the south as I watched on
radar. We only got 1/10 inch of rain,
which was just fine.
Spring is advancing quickly though. I have daffodils and hyacinths blooming now.
Crocus are in full bloom everywhere. The
forsythia is blooming, and the honeybells.
The apricot tree will be blooming in the next couple of days and the
anemones. There are buds showing on the
trout lilies. I don’t see dandelions in
the yard yet though the purple deadnettle is blooming like crazy, but I do have
a dandelion blooming in a pot in my little greenhouse.
This weekend I planted lettuce and a few hills of
potatoes. The potatoes are an experiment
as I don’t usually plant them this early. More about potato growing later in the blog. I have been pruning vines out of the cedar
trees and my husband started clearing the sod off a new garden spot I have
planned. It’s for a cutting garden. I’m also chipping away at the front lawn, I
remove a little lawn each year. This
year it’s just a 2 by 6 feet extension of a narrow bed along the front path- so
far. Other projects coming up include
emptying my water feature, re-lining it and making the area around it more permanent,
now that I have decided I like it there.
I will be off to the nursery tomorrow for some pansies
to plant. I love pansies and plant some
every year about this time for a little extra color. While at the nursery I will of course have to
explore what plants I might want for that little bed extension mentioned above.
The bulb catalogs for fall planting are already
arriving. That’s because people are
seeing all the bulbs blooming now and want some. I take pictures of my bulb planted areas each
spring several times so I will know where I need to plant more things in the
fall (really where I have some room left to cram some in). By fall the area will be smothered in hosta,
daylilies and other plants. I love
bulbs and try something different every year.
And you have to replace some bulbs every year, they disappear and fade
away over time, although I will say I have pretty good luck with bulbs lasting
many years in my sandy soil.
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| Gizzy and I visit our very full pond |
Chicks
and bunnies
As an animal lover I want to make a plea that everyone
not buy baby chicks, ducklings or bunnies as Easter gifts for children. These are not disposable pets. They are not things
to teach your kids about “life” or a 3 or 4 week experiment. They are living creatures that deserve to be
treated carefully and kindly.
I cringe every time I see little children cuddling baby
chicks or ducks up next to their face or kissing them. These babies can transmit several diseases to
your baby, even though the baby birds look healthy. Salmonella, and E.coli are almost always
present in bird droppings and some children can get extremely ill if they
contract the diseases. Other rarer diseases
like bird flu are also caught from close contact with poultry.
Baby chicks and ducks are frequently killed by the
tight squeeze of a child or from being dropped or stepped on. They require a secure pen to keep other
animals from getting them. They must
have a heat lamp to keep them warm and special feed, not birdseed or bread
crumbs if they are to grow properly. And
believe me if kept inside they smell.
Most chicks sold at Easter will grow up to be roosters, since these
chicks are the cheapest for stores to buy.
Bunnies must also have a secure cage and rabbit food,
not lettuce and grass. They can scratch
and bite children and like baby birds are frequently loved to death by kids. If
they roam about the house they can ruin things by chewing on them or chew
electric cords and burn the house down.
Cute little bunnies grow up to be not so cute big rabbits, and most
aren’t very interested in being a pet.
Please, please do not get kids live pets for
Easter. I get calls from people about a
month after Easter wanting me to take half grown chicks, usually roosters, or
ducks or bunnies. Animal shelters also
get the ones that don’t die. Don’t be
the horrible, bad person who gives their kids living things as disposable pets.
If you are interested in keeping poultry as an adult
hobby please see the page to the right side of the blog on keeping chickens and
other poultry. Or you can buy my book- Raising Chickens For Dummies,
sold on Amazon and in other fine stores.
Getting
a soil test
Gardeners should get a soil test when they are new to
gardening in an area, when they have never had the soil tested or when they are
experiencing a lot of problems growing plants.
After your initial baseline soil test it’s a good idea to test your soil
every 3-4 years unless you suspect a problem and then you may want to do it
sooner.
The most common soil test will tell you the basic soil
composition, the pH of the soil (acidity and alkalinity), and the amounts of
potassium and phosphorus, major plant nutrients in the soil. It will not tell you how much nitrogen is in
the soil because nitrogen is constantly fluctuating. You can also ask to have the percentage of
organic matter tested. Soil labs can also test for micronutrients.
A normal garden soil test does not tell you if the soil
is contaminated with chemicals like lead or pesticides. This type of soil test can be done but it is
expensive.
How
to collect a soil sample
The home gardener can simply dig down to 6-8 inches
with a narrow spade. Remove any large
rocks and as much surface vegetation as possible and place the sample in a
bucket. Repeat this in 10- 20 locations
across the garden spot. Larger areas
need more samples.
Combine all the samples by mixing the soil together
well in the bucket. Then remove 2-3 cups
of soil from the bucket. If the soil is
very wet spread it on a newspaper in a warm spot and let it get as dry as
possible before packing it up. Place the
sample in a zip close plastic bag.
Most small suburban lots need to have only one
representative soil sample taken. But if
you know the soil is different in different parts of your landscape, if you
have a large piece of property where you will be growing things in different
areas, or you suspect a soil problem in one area you will want to do more than
one sample. Make sure you label the
samples so you know where they came from.
In most counties of the US there is a county Extension
office. Many of these offices will offer
soil testing for a nominal fee. If they
don’t they can refer you to a place that does do soil testing. You may have to
mail the sample in yourself or bring it to the office. Some places will send you a kit to use,
which you pre-pay for. To find information
on your county Extension office use this link
http://npic.orst.edu/pest/countyext.htm
The results of your soil test will help you decide if
you need to fertilize and/ or need to correct any pH or mineral imbalances. Extension soil tests may explain results with
an insert they send with your results or an Extension educator may be available
to explain the results. Some Extension
offices have a hotline you can call.
Some larger garden stores have experts that can look at your soil test
results and help you decide if you need amendments. Some of these larger garden stores will also
do soil testing.
I do not recommend the small kits you can buy for
testing the soil in catalogs. Most of
these only test soil pH and are not very accurate.
Redneck
garden tip
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| Small clear clip |
There are all kinds of things sold to tie plants to
stakes and other supports but if you need a quick and cheap solution go to the
dollar store and buy what are known as claw, clam or butterfly clips in the
hairgoods department. These little clips
are meant to hold hair but do an excellent job of holding vines and stems to
supports and are easy to use.
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| Larger clip |
The clips come in various sizes and colors. You can usually get a card of 6-12 clips for
around a dollar. I like the clear ones
because they seem to disappear once placed in the garden. The clips rounded interior space doesn’t
crush tender stems. I have also used
large clips of this sort for holding the liner of my water feature to the outer
tank wall. Put some in your plant tool
box or bag and you won’t have to look for twine or twist ties and the tying up
job will be finished in a jiffy.
Allegany
Vine, Climbing Bleeding Hearts
The Allegany vine, Adlumia
fungosa, is a little known native vine that more gardeners should get to
know. It is also known as Climbing Fumitory
or Mountain Fringe. It’s in the poppy
family, but looks similar to Bleeding Hearts and corydalis. Allegany vine (sometimes spelled Allegheny) is
native to the Allegany Mountains, northeastern US and Canada. It’s never numerous, and is a species of concern,
or endangered in many places. Allegany
vine’s elusive nature is part of its charm.
It can pop up randomly in woodlands or older gardens, from seeds long
buried in the soil.
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| Allegany vine |
Allegany vine grows naturally in moist soil at woodland
edges. Yet it’s also found on sunny sides of banks or cliffs and is adaptable
in the garden. It’s hardy in plant zones 3-7.
One should never remove Allegany vine from the wild. Some native plant catalogs will offer young
plants or seeds and that is how the gardener who likes unusual things should
get his or her plant.
Allegany vine has compound leaves consisting of 3
leaflets, which in turn have 2-3 lobes, each with a tiny point at the tip. The leaves are similar to the leaves of
common Bleeding Heart. Allegany vine is
a biannual plant, with the plant forming a base rosette of ferny leaves similar
to common Bleeding Heart in the first year.
In the second year it makes a scrambling vine that can get to be about
10 feet long.
The flowers of Allegany Vine are also similar to
Bleeding Heart, an oval “balloon” flaring at the bottom. They are white, pink or rarely lavender. They occur in early summer of the second year
and make a dainty, pretty show dangling all along the vine. The flowers turn into tubular, papery seed
pods filled with tiny shiny black seeds. If you are lucky the plant will reseed
itself and pop up for years to come in the garden.
Plant Allegany vine in partial shade. It likes moist, loamy soil but will grow in
other locations. You’ll need something
for the second year plant to climb or scramble up. That could be a small tree or post or it will
scramble along the tops of nearby plants and along the ground, where its
flowers won’t be as visible. In good
garden soil they won’t need fertilization.
Keep the vine watered in dry weather. No serious pests or diseases are known.
Starting
from seed
Allegany vine can be tricky to start from seeds. Collect seeds when the pods split and plant
them in small containers, just barely covered in soil. Leave the pots outside over winter in a safe
protected spot. Alternately you can
collect the seeds and subject them to a cold dormancy period by putting them in
the refrigerator for two months before sowing.
Seeds usually germinate irregularly, over a long period
of time. Best germination temperatures
are between 60-70 degrees F. Use a fine,
seed starting medium for planting and keep it moist. Once a plant has 3-4 leaves it can be
transplanted to its growing spot after it’s acclimated to the outdoors for a
few days. If you are growing it inside
for a while provide good light and temperatures around 70 degrees. Remember plants won’t bloom until the second
year.
I was able to get a plant many years ago. I don’t have flowers every year but I can
usually find a first year plant in the bed each year. In some years I have beautifully blooming
vines. This is a plant that comes and
goes on its own time schedule. But if
you are interested in native plants of delicate beauty with the wild left in
them, Allegany Vine is the perfect subject.
How
to plant a tree properly
April is a great month to plant trees. Bare root, balled and burlapped or potted
trees all respond well to planting when the weather is cool and wet. Early May is still fine for bare-root trees
that have been well cared for and balled or potted trees and shrubs can be
planted until late September if they are well cared for as they acclimate to a
new spot.
Unfortunately many old ideas about tree planting still
exist among people who work in landscaping nurseries and garden stores. Research done at places such as Michigan
State University has helped us better understand the process a tree goes
through when it has to re-establish itself after transplanting. The newer advice, backed by research, helps
ensure that your trees will get off to a better start and continue to grow for
many, many years. Here are some things
that you should do or have your landscaper do, to get those new trees off to a
healthy start.
This advice is for trees planted in the landscape, as
ornamental or fruiting trees. A
re-forestation project, involving hundreds of small seedlings requires some
adjustments to technique, although following the advice below would give your
trees a great start.
Don’t
soak the tree roots for long
Do not put bare root trees in a pail of water for longer
than an hour. You can moisten the packing material or wrap a bare root tree in
some moistened paper, for holding for a day or two. Keep them in a cool place. Try not to hold bare root trees for more than
a few days before planting. Soaking the
roots too long will rot them and the tree will probably die.
Make sure trees in pots or ball and burlapped are
watered, but not too wet. They must be
able to drain well. Do not sit pots or
root balls directly in water.
Preparing
the hole
Prepare a hole three times as wide, but no deeper than
the root ball. If the tree is bare-root
when you buy it, look at the trunk for a dark “ring” area to show you the level
the tree was growing at before it was dug for the depth of your hole. If it’s hard to determine the original
growing level look for the highest branch root and make the hole just deep
enough that the top root will be about an inch under the soil.
Contrary to what most people think, most types of trees
have root systems that remain in the top three feet of soil. Even if they are a species that has a deeper
tap root, that root grows more slowly than lateral roots when first
transplanted. The tree needs to send out
lateral, (side) roots so that it can start grabbing water and minerals to
support new top growth and it needs to stabilize itself so it doesn’t topple in
the wind. Having loose soil in a wide
area around the root system is the key to faster establishment.
Planting
at the right depth
Trees that are not planted at the right depth may grow,
although some species are fussier about this than others. But the tree may be in for a lifetime of
problems if it wasn’t planted at the optimum level. If you look at a mature tree that was planted
at the right depth it will be wider at the bottom, the wider part is called a
root flare. Trees planted too deeply
will have trunks that appear to be straight, without widening, right to the
ground. A trunk that flares at the bottom
is stronger and able to withstand wind better.
Trees that were planted too shallow usually don’t survive to
maturity.
You get a tree planted at the right level by looking
for that top root. The highest root
branching off the main root on the tree should be just below the ground, about
1 inch below it. On some very small bare
root trees you may need to look closely at the main root to see where branching
is beginning.
To see where the top branching root is in a balled and
burlapped tree is you need to remove the burlap. That will be covered in more detail
below. When trees are put into burlap
roots may be twisted up higher than they were growing and soil piled up above
that. You need to uncover the root
system in that ball to see where the top root naturally lies. With a potted tree you can usually line up
the soil surface at the top of the pot with the ground level where you are
planting it. You will, of course, be
removing the pot.
Removing
anything that isn’t “tree”
Once the tree is in the hole at the right level
everything must be removed from around the root system. Here is where many landscapers balk at the
new recommendations that say all burlap, wire cages and even so called peat
pots must be removed before filling in the hole. You can leave the burlap on the root ball
until it’s in the hole - where you can cut away most of it- but it should be
removed. There are a couple of good
reasons to do this. So called peat pots
must be removed before the roots are placed in the hole.
Modern “burlap” is often composed of synthetic
materials that really don’t break down quickly in soil. Tree roots may still be contained in those
packages years after planting. That’s
not a good thing because the roots need to spread out to support new top
growth. And any burlap that gets exposed
to the air wicks moisture away from tree roots.
Peat pots are even worse at restricting root spreading. Trees need to get those lateral roots growing
the first few months after planting, not years down the line.
And you need to inspect that root system before you
fill the hole, another reason to remove burlap.
Roots that have circled around and around in pots or burlap balls will
continue to grow in circles after being placed into the ground. This may eventually strangle the tree, even
years after planting. And as mentioned
above, you need to know where the top branching root is to properly place the
root system.
Make sure all strings, wire, rope etc. are also removed
from the roots and also the trunk and branches of a tree. As a tree grows these things cut through the
area that transports food and water and any parts above the constricting item
will die.
Helping
roots grow right
When planting trees never wrap a root around the hole-
spread it out horizontally. If it’s
really too long, trim it off to fit the hole, but never spiral it around the
hole. When you see those roots that have
circled the pot as described above, they must be loosened before replacing
soil. If you can loosen them with your
fingers and spread them out that’s a sign the circling wasn’t too
advanced. Good nurseries either root
trim or repot trees to keep them from getting root bound.
If the roots are thickly layered at the bottom of the
pot or root ball or around the sides you’ll need to trim them. If it’s just at the bottom, trim off the
circling roots, making a slice across the bottom an inch or so deep. Then slightly flare out the remaining soil
and roots. If roots are really circled
heavily up the side of the pot make several cuts length wise through the roots,
as well as trimming the bottom, and hope for the best.
Roots that are circling when planted will probably
continue to spiral around the main root or trunk. This may eventually kill the tree by choking
off the supply of water and food, sometimes years after planting.
Spread roots sideways in the planting hole, except for
any central main root. Don’t squish all
the roots down vertically into the hole.
Any larger roots that are broken can be trimmed.
Refill
with what you removed
You’ll see the signs advising you to buy amendments and
the sales staff may try to convince you, but don’t buy peat or topsoil or
anything else to add to the planting soil as you plant your tree. Research has shown that trees establish
better if the hole is refilled with what you took out. After all that is the soil that the tree will
be living in after it grows through your small amended area. It is easier for the tree to adapt to new
conditions if it starts right away and it doesn’t have to re-adjust its root system
when it grows through the amendments and into the surrounding soil.
Holes filled with “good stuff” may hold too much
moisture next to roots, especially if you throw a bag of peat into heavy clay
soil. The roots sit in water and
rot. And trees may not extend their
roots quickly into surrounding soil if it’s easier to grow roots inside an
amended area. This can lead to circling
roots, with the tree being strangled or to a poorly established root system
that can’t support the tree in a wind storm or through a drought.
You can add a little slow release fertilizer to the
soil you are going to backfill with.
Don’t throw it in the hole, mix it through the soil you removed then
refill the hole.
Don’t
prune and don’t stake- usually
It’s not necessary to remove one third of the tree as
some older advice may lead you to believe.
Research has shown the tree needs top growth to make food so the root
system can grow. Prune off any broken branches and any branches that cross or
rub each other, that’s all. You can
shape the tree once it has established itself, usually after one growing
season.
Most new trees should not be staked. They grow stronger trunks and wider root
systems if the tree is allowed to sway in the wind. There are some exceptions. New evergreens planted in the fall or in high
wind areas may need to be staked for one growing season. Some ornamental weeping trees will need to be
staked at least for a growing season, some for much longer. If you do stake a tree check the ropes
several times a year to make sure they are not cutting into the tree.
Don’t
over water and don’t over mulch
Yes, newly planted trees need to be well watered at
planting and they should be watered when needed during the first growing season
to get them off to a good start. But
their roots don’t need to be constantly soaked. In really hot weather and in sandy soil
trees may need watering frequently but in most situations a good watering once
a week the first season will be enough.
Mulch is good for trees, but it shouldn’t actually
touch the tree trunk. Rot and disease
can start where decomposing mulch touches trees. And never use more than 3 inches of
mulch. Too much mulch absorbs or sheds
water before it gets to the soil and it prevents oxygen from reaching tree
roots. To get water and air tree roots may
grow up into the mulch instead of down into the soil, which isn’t good for the
tree.
A little care taken during tree planting will do a lot
to prevent tree failure. A tree may leaf
out and appear to grow the first season or even several seasons but failure of
a tree in the first three years after planting is often due to poor planting
procedures. When contracting with a nursery or landscaper to plant your trees
make sure they are willing to follow your directions and plant properly. You are the customer. If they say your warranty is void if you
remove burlap for example, you may want to use another company. They may replace the tree but you will have
lost valuable growing time if it needs to be replaced. And unfortunately the tree may not start to
decline until the warranty is up.
Raising
Your Own Potatoes
I used to grow a big bed of potatoes each year, but
since we do not eat potatoes as often because of the carb factor, I now only grow
a hill or two to harvest new potatoes.
But I remember my grandfather looking at an empty lot, maybe 100 feet by
200 feet across the street from his house and telling me that during the war he
grew enough potatoes on that lot to feed the neighborhood all winter. That’s probably an exaggeration- and I don’t
know how many neighbors he had back then- but potatoes are a good crop to grow
if you need to provide a lot of your own food.
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| Potato plant in flower |
Potatoes are as easy to grow in the garden as their
cousins, the tomatoes and peppers, but not as many people grow them. That’s a shame, because home gardeners can
taste some of the wonderful varieties of potatoes that are not found in the
supermarket. Even if you can’t grow your
entire year’s supply of potatoes in the garden, you can grow enough to have
some delicious baby new potatoes with several meals. Potatoes can even be grown in containers.
Some
varieties
There are hundreds of varieties of potato; each has its
own unique flavor. Most people are
familiar with brown skinned or red skinned potatoes with white flesh, but there
are many skin and flesh colors of potatoes as well as sizes and shapes. Some varieties to try are - Russian Banana,
French Fingerling, (small, finger sized tubers, unique nutty taste), Yukon Gold, German Butterball, (yellow skin and flesh,
buttery taste), Red Gold, Desiree, (red skin, yellow flesh), Kerr’s Pink,
Adirondack Red (red skin, pink flesh), Red Pontiac, Red Norland, (red skin,
white flesh) Adirondack Blue, Michigan Purple, (blue, purple skin, blue flesh). Potatoes with brown skin and white flesh
include, Green Mountain, Anoka, Superior, Kennebec and Butte.
Growing
Potatoes
Potatoes grow well in most areas of zones 3- 8. They will grow fairly well in any soil, but
prefer sandy soil with a pH of 6.5 or lower.
If your soil is alkaline, (pH above 7), you can still grow potatoes,
although they may be more susceptible to disease. Potatoes require lots of water so may not be
a good choice where it’s dry. They will
not grow well where the soil doesn’t drain well either. Potatoes need full sun.
Potatoes are started from seed potatoes or “sets“. Small seed potatoes are planted whole, while
larger ones are cut into pieces. Each
piece needs one or more “eyes” or sprouts.
The pieces should be allowed to sit for a few days for the cut surface
to dry and harden. You can buy several
types of potatoes in garden stores, but for the unusual varieties you will have
to order from a catalog. It will take
about 1 lb. of potato pieces to plant a 10 foot row.
The
grocery store potato controversy
You can cut up sprouting potatoes from the grocery
store, but it may be better to buy certified seed potatoes. Many people worry about using potatoes from
the grocery because of the possibility of those potatoes bringing late blight,
a serious disease of potatoes and tomatoes.
Many experts warn against using grocery potatoes for that reason. There is a slight possibility of getting late
blight from grocery potatoes. And you
can always get late blight on your plants later in the season even if you use
certified potato sets.
If you are just growing a few potatoes I don’t think
starting a few from the grocery is too big a deal. Here’s my reasoning on
that. Most potatoes with late blight rot
quickly in storage. If you are finding
sprouting potatoes in spring in bags from the grocery store they probably
didn’t have late blight. If there is no
rotting areas on the tuber the chances are even less. Wash the tubers well with mild dish soap
before getting them ready to plant. Now
your chances are very, very slim of those tubers carrying late blight.
I would be more careful about keeping potatoes from
farmers markets or organically grown potatoes from groceries for starting new
plants. Commercial, conventional potato
farms monitor the crop and use preventative sprays for late blight if needed on
potatoes. Small growers may be less
likely to monitor for late blight and more likely to miss infections and sell
infected tubers. (You can buy certified,
organic seed potatoes if you want them.)
In short: If your garden is in an area with commercial
potato growing farms around I would certainly stick with certified seed potatoes. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for their
loss of income. If you are growing a lot
of potatoes to feed your family and intend to store them over winter buy
certified disease free seed potatoes.
Remember that just buying certified seed potatoes will not prevent the
disease from coming to your garden. It
can be transferred to your plants by other things, including coming in on the
wind. But for just a few potato plants using well sprouted grocery store
potatoes is relatively low risk.
There’s one other problem often mentioned when talking
about grocery store potatoes being used for planting. Some potatoes are treated with a chemical to
prevent sprouting. But if your grocery
store potatoes already have large sprouts, that’s not a problem. Once the plants are sprouting they will
perform as well as seed potatoes after planting. To see if the potatoes will sprout, if they
don’t have sprouts, wash them and set them in a sunny window. You should get good sized sprouts in 2-3
weeks.
The
actual planting
Potatoes can be planted outside as soon as the ground
is ready to be worked and is moderately warm. You don’t want any hard freezes to come along,
but they will withstand light frosts with no damage. Potatoes are a crop that needs to be rotated,
so don’t plant potatoes where they were planted last year. They should not be planted where tomatoes,
peppers or eggplant grew the year before, as they are all related. Crop rotation helps prevent disease and
nutrient depletion of soil.
To grow potatoes make a trench in the soil 3-4 inches
deep. Place the seed pieces 8-12 inches apart and cover with soil. If the
pieces have sprouts it’s fine to cover them so just the tips of the sprouts are
exposed. Rows should be about 3 feet
apart. When the potato plants are about
6 inches tall, mound up soil or mulch until just the top leaves are
showing. The mounding is done again when
the plants are about 6 inches above the first mound. An alternative to mounding with soil is to
use straw, dry leaves or other mulch to cover the plants as they grow. This allows you to harvest clean potatoes
from down under that mulch very easily.
The disadvantage is mulch may be blown or washed away which leaves the
tubers exposed to sunlight. Mice like to
hide in mulch to nibble on potatoes also.
You can also grow potatoes in containers. A container the size of a half whiskey barrel
can easily yield 5 pounds of potatoes.
Make sure the container has drainage and that you water it as soon as it
feels dry. Use light weight potting soil
to half fill the container, press your seed pieces into the soil, and cover the
plants stems with mulch as they grow.
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| Raised bed full of healthy potatoes |
Potato
problems
Potatoes may suffer from Potato Beetles, Flea Beetles
and other insects. The easiest way to
deal with those pests is to cover the plants with floating row covers. This light material allows light, air and
water to pass through and potatoes do not need to be pollinated to make
tubers.
Fungal disease (late blight), can sometimes be a
problem with potatoes. Late blight can be spread from infected potatoes used
for planting, or from infected tomato plants. It can also blow in on the wind. Late blight causes rapid blackening and
wilting of plants and the tubers will have dark areas and rot quickly.
Once plants get a fungal disease there is no cure. Crop
rotation, and using certified seed potatoes, can help prevent disease. Non-organic growers can use preventative
fungal sprays, sold in garden stores.
Clean up the garden and make sure not to leave any potatoes in the
ground. If you had disease problems in
your potatoes do not put them in the compost pile. This can allow spores of disease like late
blight to survive winter. Bury them
deeply, dispose of them in a landfill or burn them.
Scab on potatoes causes crusty darkened areas on potato
skins. It’s a virus that needs certain environmental conditions to thrive. Scab is mainly a cosmetic problem, and the
scabby area can be peeled off and the potatoes are fine to eat. Scab is often caused by soil that’s alkaline,
(high pH) or other environmental conditions such as moisture stress at certain
growing points. It can also be caused by
adding manure to the potato bed in the spring.
Rotating crops helps prevent scab.
Hollow centers or brown centers in potatoes, are also
caused by environmental conditions, usually irregular watering, dry spells
followed by lots of water. Cold
temperatures for long periods at planting can also produce the problem. Some varieties are more susceptible to this
than others. The potatoes are safe to
eat but don’t store as well and there is some waste when the hollow areas are
removed.
Harvesting
Potato flowers are quite pretty and can be white or
shades of purple. Potato flowers do
make seeds on occasion, which look like small hard green tomatoes. It’s not advisable
to save these for planting. Depending on
weather and the variety, plants began blooming about 2 months after planting.
As soon as you see your potato plants blooming, dig
down carefully and harvest some new potatoes.
If you cover the stems back up and don’t take all the little potatoes,
the remaining ones will mature to full size.
A few weeks after flowering the potato plants will begin
to die. This scares some new gardeners, who think the plants are drying up and
dying from disease. This is just a
signal that, once the plants are brown and dried, mature potatoes are
ready. You can dig them now or wait a
while, but they must be dug before a hard freeze. Any tubers that you damage should be used
right away. Let them dry in a warm, dark
area for a few days, then brush the soil off and store in a dark place with
temperatures between 40-60 degrees.
Don’t wash potatoes until just before you use them.
Stems, leaves and all green parts of the potato plant
are poisonous. Green areas on tubers are
also poisonous and should be trimmed off before cooking.
Delightful
Deviled Eggs
At Easter time there may be lots of hard boiled eggs
around that need to be used up. If
hardboiled eggs have been kept refrigerated except for a brief period of egg
hunting they’ll be fine to eat. And
since eggs are abundant and cheap in spring you don’t need Easter eggs as an
excuse to make deviled eggs. They are a
good appetizer for Easter brunch or dinner too.
The fresher an egg is the harder it is to get the shell
off nicely for making deviled eggs. Therefore
use your oldest eggs for deviled eggs or try this tip for easier shell removal. Place eggs in water before putting the pan on
to boil. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water. Bring water to a slow boil and then cook eggs
for 5 minutes. Cover pan and let sit 5
minutes. Drain off boiling water into the sink.
Run cold water into the pan with the eggs and let the water run slowly
over the eggs, overflowing in the sink for 5 minutes. Or add some ice cubes to the cold water in
the pan if you don’t like wasting water. Let them sit 5 minutes or until the
eggs feel cold to the touch.
Crack eggs by gently pushing down as you roll them
around a countertop. Peel off shell and
rinse eggs to remove any little shell pieces.
Now slice eggs in half, either sideways or across, depending on how you
like your deviled eggs to look. Remove
the yolks and put them in a bowl.
Arrange the remaining white halves on a plate.
Egg
Filling recipe
6 hardboiled eggs, cooled and peeled, split in half and
yolks removed to a bowl (as above). Set
whites aside for filling. Double this recipe if desired, this makes 12 deviled
egg servings.
3 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumpled into small
pieces
2 tablespoons finely diced chives
1 Tablespoon sour cream
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise or Miracle Whip type dressing
1 tablespoon finely grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon mustard, your choice of flavor, Dijon is
good
1 tablespoon dill pickle relish
1/8 teaspoon seasoned salt
Pepper to taste
Directions
Place the cooked egg yolks and the rest of the
ingredients in a bowl and blend until smooth.
Fill the hollows in the remaining cooked egg white
halves with the egg yolk filling. For a
pretty presentation garnish with a little chopped chive or a bit of parsley. Keep refrigerated until served.
"Let
your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”
Rabindranath Tagore
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
© Kim Willis - no parts of this newsletter may be used
without permission.
And
So On….
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