Sunday, May 21, 2006

What's Growin' On: 5/21/06


Breakfast! (Wait. *checks clock*) Make That Late, Late Brunch!
(Wow. What happened to the morning?)


Realization Of The Day:
Well, the turtles didn't get them all (but they certainly ate more than their fair share).

Miscellaneous:
--A loud thunderstorm crashed through about 5am but didn't let loose with much rain. Still drippy outside. Glad I watered most of the garden yesterday, as this rain will do something more than simply evaporate right off the plants.
--The Orange Banana tomato plants had a very nice growth spurt and are looking mighty happy (as am I).
--The spring garlic had a huge growth spurt. They grew about 6 inches in a day. I was shocked to see that some of the leaves are about 12 inches high already. I think my plan just might work.

From Garden To Table:
--Yes, I did indeed devour all of these strawberries myself, sprinkled with just a touch of powdered sugar to get the juices flowing and sweeten up the few tarties. And while the purist in me found this simple preparation to be a most delightful very late breakfast, if someone had handed me a bowl of freshly whipped cream (one of my very favorite foods) or a glass of champagne as an accompaniment, I definitely would have accepted them.

Harvest For The Henhouse:
--Strawberry stems and a few imperfect berries. They adore fruit.
--Sweet hop clover (they turned their beaks up at it).
--Spicy, spicy, spicy mature arugula leaves (they loved them).

Coming Up In A Day Or Two:
--"I Can't Live Without. . . Grass Clippings!" What started as a tiny backyard lawn-sized article has grown into a golf course. Hope it's not all just due to manure. Ha ha, garden humor.

12 comments:

  1. Beautiful strawberries and you can't begrudge the turtles a couple.

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  2. Hi Steven,
    Okay, just how many do you consider to be 'a couple?' I'm thinking it's not over 10. Obviously turtles do a different kind of math than we do. Actually, I'm betting they don't do any math at all--I mean, they can only count to ONE, as that is how many bites they take from each berry before moving on to the next one! I left all the half eaten ones out at bait.

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  3. Turtle and Strawberry Soup anyone?

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  4. I asked my neighbour about her potatos and she said that they get about a dozen taters per plant.
    Sooo going by that the 36 plants I have may give me 432 potatoes!

    Did I miss the arugula pesto post?

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  5. Hi Steven,
    Ack! That sounds like a perfectly good way to ruin some beautiful strawberries. : )

    Hi Angel,
    About a dozen potatoes per plant is great. 432 potatoes? Good thing they store well. : )

    I did finally get around to answering your question about how many potatoes I get per plant. I'll copy it here so you dont have to hunt for it.

    And no, you didn't miss the arugula pesto post. I'm really hoping to get it up soon. I got waylaid by a question from a reader about grass clippings, and I know that's backwards thinking--mulch before food. I need to get my priorities straight! (But I thought the grass clipping thing was going to be real quick, and, well, it wasn't.)

    Anyway, here's what I wrote back to you about the potatoes, plus a question put out to others about what kind of harvests they get:

    Hi Angel,
    I'd say I get anwhere from 4 to 8 potatoes per plant, in varying sizes. I don't get huge yields, and this may be because I plant my potatoes closer together than you're supposed to (mine are about 1 foot apart at most and then three 8-foot long rows in a 4-foot wide bed--I know you're supposed to leave like 3 or 4 feet between rows, but I just don't see why, and that isn't possible in 4'x8' raised beds). Also, I stopped cutting the potatoes apart and setting them in the sun to cure before planting--I just put them whole into the ground. But I'm happy with my harvest.

    Anybody else want to share how many potoates they average per plant? I have no idea what a "perfect" harvest would be.

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  6. A lovely photo and a tasty brunch, I'm sure!

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  7. Farmgirl -
    Those strawberries look great!!! Did you eat them all in one sitting? Yum - I'm jealous. I tried growing strawberries in those dark green "grow bags" with slots in them last year. Hung them off the grill (not by the heat) so they'd get full sun and they leafed out a lot, but I'm afraid in that small a bag they dried out too easily too many times during the heatwave that was last summer. I got some strawberries, but not enought to make it worth while.

    Steve - Strawberry turtle soup? Ew! LOL

    OH! And Farmgirl - got the new Cooking Light in the mail this weekend, and they had arugala pesto! As soon as I saw it I figured we'd have to start checking those copyright laws and see if maybe they were swiping from you!? ;-)

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  8. I got about 10-12 medium and small potatoes from each plant last year. I had 6 plants jammed into a 4 x 6 bed, but I raised the soil up about a foot. My yield ended up at about 22 lbs.

    This year I have 25 plants in a 36 foot row that I have mounded up about 18 inches. I expect my yield will about the same.

    I think that 3-4 foot row spacing must be for a commercial planting where machines are used. I'll ask my cousin's husband's Aunt, she's a tater farmer.

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  9. Talk about food porn! I'm green with envy!

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  10. *covets strawberries, salivates*

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  11. i managed to get on average 2.5kg of maincrop potatoes per plant

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