Harvesting

Went out this morning and harvested the potaotoes I was growing in the 2'x2'x4' box in the garden. This was the first time I attempted to grow potatoes and I have to say that it yielded some fine looking...soil. Not so much on the potato side of the ledger, however.

 The potatoes were starting to look pretty ratty. While we haven't yet had a frost, the leaves were starting to turn brown on their edges and were, in general, not looking all that healthy. Worn out and ragged would be a good description. I started with 10 seed potatoes and nearly all of them produced plants initially. Now there are only six or so stems sticking up out of the ground.

 I had built up the box using 2' long pieces of 1"x"6" cedar boards. I started with just two rows and added rows and soil as the plants grew. Burying the stems was supposed to engourage the growth of potatoes throughout the box.

The soil eventually was stacked to within 3-4" of the top (some six boards high) when I stopped adding soil. Over time, that soil--a mix of compost, potting soil and peat moss--settled as you can see here withthe top to boards having been removed. You can also see that the plants really look poor.

 With all the boards on one side removed, you can see the nice dark laomy soil that filled the box. There were numerous earthworms in that mix but damn few potatoes.

 That's it. That's the entire harvest from nearly 10 cubic feet of soil: four or five decent sized potatoes and a bunch of little marbles. Certainly not worth the investment in cedar boards, soil and peat moss.
Odd thing is, the bigger potatoes were down near the bottom in the regular clay soil of the original garden and not in the loose mix I had added. Guess there's a reason potatoes grow best in the rocky soils of Maine and Idaho!

Not many taters for the effort...

...but the soil sure looks good!

Well, we can scratch potatoes from the list for next year.
Along with the okra that flowered but never set pods.
And the cantaloupes were tasty but got no bigger than a softball.

Slowly but surely, there is Progress

Made some decent progress at the Bolt Hole today. Wired up the bathroom so there's now light and a working GFI outlet in there. Also hooked up the light in the storage room to the working outlet in there. So now I can see well enough to find the toilet and my tools. Both are on the same circuit with room for more.*

Ran the wire in the kitchen that power the light over the stove, one kitchen outlet and the kids bedroom (three lights and four outlets). This will be a single, new circuit in the breaker box when it's finished.

All of the above, except for the one outlet in the storage room, used to be running off one circuit supplied by old, canvas covered aluminum wire.

The fourth line is the one to the upstairs bedroom. As I've mentioned the canvas line goes up into the ceiling there but somewhere there must be a junction box from which the two lights and two outlets draw their power via newer 12-2 grounded wire. If only we could find that box.... I'll put an "X" on the ceiling where I think it might be and let Mark have a shot at finding it. HE can cut through the sheetrock. (Actually, he would prefer to simply run some new wire on the surface of the walls, I'm the one insisting that we find that damn box.)

*The "more" in this case will be another line that will power the front porch light (yet to be purchased) and the kitchen ceiling light. When done, this one breaker will have just four lights and two outlets. Only the kitchen ceiling light sees heavy use.

******

Tomorrow I'll put in half a day and finish fishing the wires up to the attic for the kitchen and porch lights. Then I'll be heading back to the Aerie for a week. Hopefully all the snow will be gone in PA. Terry said she got about 4 inches Wednesday night. It all stayed south of Route 17. Maybe by the time I get back up here in 7 to 10 days, the snow that's laying around will disappear. The daytime temperatures (upper 40s and very, very sunny) have certainly put a dent in the mounds of frozen stuff, but that has cause the yard to become, shall we say, a tad muddy. I had to put the Tundra into 4-wheel just to get out of the mud so I could run down to the hardware store for a few items.

I need the ground to get thawed and dry out a bit so I can put the onions in at the Aerie. I also need to spade the one bed where we will grow beans and cucumbers as well as take out the old strawberries and spade that area for an attempt at growing carrots. I know it's too early to think about putting beans, cuckes and carrots in the ground--we could have frost for another month--but I'd still like to do some soil prep.

In a perfect world, I'd get some top soil from the mound behind the barn at the Bolt Hole and be able to bring it to the garden at the Aerie. But there is still snow covering that mound and no solid earth between it and the front of the barn--just mud and snow that fell from the barn and garage roofs. This summer/fall, I have to remember to bring a few bushels of soil back to PA whenever I visit the Bolt Hole.