Farmer Friday: Potatoes & Squash

New Potatoes; White Creamers

All Blue potato

Yukon Gold

New Potatoes; almost 5 pounds

I love growing potatoes. They are a pretty easy crop, just remember that the new potatoes will grow above the piece that you planted. I try to plant mine about 9 inches deep and 9-12 inches apart depending on how big the plants will get. I have also grown potatoes in 5 gallon buckets. To do that I just put potting soil in the bottom third of the bucket and plant the seed potato. When it sprouts I add more soil, a little at a time, until the bucket is full. Keep it watered and when the plant dies back dump it out and pick up the potatoes. I usually get about 1-2 pounds from each bucket.

This year I didn't plant any buckets, I planted about 200 square feet of growing beds in potatoes. I planted All Red, All Blue, Yukon Gold, Belinda and White Creamers. Some take longer to finish than others, so I'll be digging potatoes for quite a while.

Biggest onion ever~ 1 # 8 oz

I grew a small bed of onions. In the past I haven't had the best luck with them since our soil is not the best. I was really impressed with the Barbossa and Granex varieties. I will plant a lot more this fall.

Baby Squash

Picked the first squash today; Gold Rush, Bennings Green Tint patty pan, yellow straight neck, Grey zucchini. Just a few were ready, but soon there will be a flood.

Flat & Curly Parsley, Lavender

Nanking cherries

I grew 9 Nanking cherry bushes from seed. They are 3 years old and fruiting. I'll be planting a lot more! They are a sweet / tart cherry and juicy, but not very big.

gopher snake getting a drink

close up gopher snake

I had something amazing happen one hot afternoon last week. I went to move the hose that was trickling on the squash plants and discovered this gopher snake getting a drink. Yep, it was actually drinking water right from the hose!

lambs quarters

A lot of lambs quarters are growing all over. Some people call them weeds, but they are actually good to  eat like spinach. And I feed a lot of them to the chickens.

Yep, as long as I have my garden!

Visitors & the Chicks go Outside

snake in the garden

Yesterday while working around the yard I saw/heard something move really fast. It was a different sound than the lizards make running across the dry leaves and a different motion. It was this long thin snake. I think it's the kind we used to call 'racers' because they move really fast. Certainly not a poisonous type. I told it was welcome to stay and eat rats and mice, that I wouldn't begrudge it the occasional toad or lizard, but it best stay away from the eggs & the chicks!

The hens check out the new chicks on the block

The morning I finished fixing up an old cage and rigging up a small pen inside the bigger chicken pen so the chicks can live outside and not in my living room. They aren't quite fully feathered but with day temps hitting 100+ and night temps not below 60 I think they are going to be just fine.  The hens & the rooster all gathered around to check out the chicks when I put them in their new home. When the chicks get bigger I will fix the end of their cage so that they can go in and out, but the hens won't be able to get into it. That way if they are getting picked on too much they will have a retreat.

Mr. Roo

The rooster is not too sure about these goings on. While working on the chicks pen I didn't get the gate shut all the way and Mr. Roo and a couple of hens made their escape. I shooed Roo and a hen back in and shut the gate while chasing the last wayward girl. Roo was running up and down the fence scolding; whether at me for making the hen fuss or at the hen for not getting back inside I"m not sure. When I caught her and put her back in tho, he was still fussing at her and pecked her on top of the head.