What with the constant rain, a barrage of slugs and snails, and a generous dollop of neglect, the front garden has been looking rather tatty recently. Taking advantage of a brief respite from the foul weather Amy, Evan and I have spent the morning pruning, sweeping and tidying. Well, Amy and I have anyway. Evan has mostly been eating dirt.
The potatoes were looking particularly scraggy so I decided to cut my losses and dig them all out. I’ve was pleasantly surprised with the amount, size, and quality of the resulting harvest; and Amy found the whole process of rummaging in the earth for them very enjoyable.
Next year I think I won’t have the tires stacked so tall when I initially put them in, as the bottom two layers contained nothing but earth. But all in all the project was a success.
I’ve also taken out the sunflowers, the lettuce, and some of the sweetpeas as they were all dead or dying. The runner beans are still up, as are the french beans. I’m not anticipating a decent crop from either of them though as the slugs and snails have given them a real pounding. Still, there’s always next year.
No related posts.
Oh yum! I LOVE mashed potato. With lots of butter and some salt, oh yay!
I quite enjoy buying potatoes from the local farm, chucking them in the garden with a liberal covering of earth, then pretending I’ve just dug them up when I bring them back into the house the next day. This works best if you invite guests round.
Having said that, I’m the sort of person who, at the end of the day, compiles a list of everything I’ve done that day, then adds “To Do:” at the top.
It’s very satisfying to go through each item on the list, either scoring it out or putting a hefty tick next to it – makes one feel ever so productive (and if anyone doubts me, I show them the list).
To do:
Tell folk about potato-based lies. -Done
Inform others of how to appear productive. -Done
And just what are you insinuating there Oli? Are you saying that I have falsified my potato exploits??
To do:
Deliberately misinterpret and get unnecessarily offended at something Oli says. – Done
Bet they taste better than any shop bought ones.
I used to lodge with some chums who were often too skint to buy decent food (but interestingly never too skint to buy alcohol, even if it was extremley cheap and nasty cider) and one of their ‘gourmet treats’ whilst waiting for payday was ‘mashed potato soup’.
You will never see this being given a posh makeover and placed onto restaurent menus across the land as it is VILE.
VILE beyond belief as it consisted of instant mash potato mix (not even smash but cornershop (un)happy shopper best being made up with 2-3 times as much water as you should normally. Bit of salt and pepper and thats it – recipe completed.
Very occasionally a beaten egg would be mixed into the ‘soup’ but that was on the rare occasions when an egg was sitting all alone in the fridge.
Sorry you’ve had so much rain. We could use some it, actually. It hasn’t rained here since 2004.
But the taters look yummy! Being an old Irishman, it’s still a massive fave, ya know.
Mmm. I think I’ll make mashed potatoes tonight!
Oh yeah they look damn nice. Great work! I’m jealous I want to grow me own taters!
[...] I did manage to harvest a reasonable crop of potatoes and strawberries, and today it has been the turn of the apples and the tomatoes. Unfortunately due [...]