Garden and Potato Harvest 2010

One of the last harvest of the season are the potato's and onions. Kind of the grand finally of the garden season. The potato's will last us the winter. They are stored in a cool cellar and will keep until spring. How many potato's? My best guess is 650 lbs. There are lots of nice russet bakers, and big red ones. The smaller ones get used in strew and just diced and cooked.

From mid summer to fall we can pretty much eat from the garden. When the kids come to visit I always send them home with fresh veggies.

Here's how the potato's look late summer. The plants are some of the largest we have had.

Started digging new potato's in the late summer.

The best tomato solution I have found so far. I have never been happy with cages they don't due a very good job of supporting the plant. This year I out the cages over the plants upside down like cone. They plants have just simply out grown the cages. I took a 5" section a chain link top rail and drill a bunch of holes in the top. Then I made "S" hooks out of heavy wire, and used green garden string to tie the plant up as they grow. It takes a little time but worked well and kept the tomato's off the ground. I had no problems with the stems breaking when they laden with fruit.

Growing Potato's update - 7/26

Peas, spinach and onions - Idaho garden. They are doing very well in the cooler climate even though they only get water every couple of weeks. In the future I will plant them further a part. They grew to tall to drive the tractor and cultivator over them.

The potato's are looking good.

I we have done a good job of keeping the weeds out. They only get watered every other week. We soak them good and they are going well.
This a row of raspberries I started last fall. The are doing well but, we won't get many berries this year.
Here you can see dirt is free of weeds and the dirt is hilled up around the planted every couple of weeks.
Here you can see the plants are starting to flower. This is the most important time to keep the plants watered, as they are now making potato's.

Garden Update - July 21

One of the best things from the garden is fresh corn.

Here is the lettuce. It's still growing well even in the heat.Thee lettuce is growing well considering how hot is is.

The tomato plants are growing out of control. The cages they were planted in are not doing much good this point. I need to get them staked up soon.

Garden Update - July 17

The summer is flying by.

The forth patch of corn is doing well.
You can see the tomatoes are starting to grow fast in the hot weather.
This is how the garden looks. A nice place to spend some time in the evenings.

I see a pumpkin in there.
The squash seem to be doing well in the grow boxes I made from worn out atv tires.

The strawberries are growing well. Hopefully nex year we will get berries.

Garden update - July 7

This is the garden as of July 7th. I have been so busy I have not had time to update the blog until now. The garden is coming along well.

The strawberries were just planted this spring as bare root plants. They are doing great!

Here are the tomatoes. They are growing like crazy.

The squash are doing good. Zuccini and Yellow summer squash.

Lettuce, spinach, and peas are finally up. The carrots are not doing well. It used petted seed for these, and they all have had a difficult time growing. Don't know wether the birds are getting the seed, or the cold rainy spring is the problem.

There are four varities of corn planted at four different times. This insure corn harvest from mid summer to late summer.

The gardens has a border of Lilly's.

Garden update - June 28

The potatoes have come up and are looking good. You can see the onions, peas, and spinach in the back. The carrot, and lettuce are not coming up very well. The potatoes patch only gets visited and cared for every couple of weeks. The raspberries in the foreground were transplanted last fall. They are doing well. AH

Planting Potato's

Digging furrows with the tractor and a v-plow in the cultivator.

The sun is starting to set as we finish the furrows.

It was a little cold and rained some. It was warm by the fire.

The rows look good and are pretty straight.

Planted the potatoes last weekend. This is a family project for the fourth year. Each year it gets a little bigger. This year ten rows of Dark Red Norland (100lbs), and five rows of Burbank russets (50lbs). The rows are are nearly a hundred feet long each. We left about four feet between the rows so little tractor can easily cultivate, and add to the hills throughout the growing season. Some of the Norlands will be harvested as small new potatoes mid summer. We used the tractor to dig the furrows 6-8" deep. The seed is cut by hand in half's or quarters depending on the size of the seed. The moister in the seed will be needed for the tubular's to reach the surface. It is better for them to be a little large than too small. The seed is put in the rows with the high-tech process of walking along with a bucket, and dropping them in the rows leaving about ten inches between each one. They will need plenty of room to grow. The tractor is used again to close and hill the rows. The plants should start popping up in about two weeks. AH

Hilling rows with the tractor

Making furrows with the tractor

Garden Tractor - Finished

So the little Garden Tractor is finished, and in service. It was taken a part and everything cleaned up and painted. It was in good mechanical conditions so, it did not require a lot of repairs. The paint is International Farmall red. My favorite.

AH

Oh Look! - Something Green

The first planting is corn is up despite the cold rainy spring weather. When it gets a little bigger I'll thin it out. Planted the second round of corn yesterday. This time four rows of Sweet Rhythm bicolor. This variety will mature in 74 days. I still have two varieties to plant. I like to space out the planting time so the corn can be harvested throughout mid and late summer. AH

Garden Tractor Progress - 7 Cultivator Finished

The cultivator is finally finished and ready to use. I have a v-plow for making furrows, and I made a set of hilling blades that attach to it. The tractor should be completed sometime this week. My winter project has taken most of the spring to complete. But, it looks great and I'm excited to use them. It's main use will be caring for the family potato garden. We are hoping to plant the potato's next weekend. AH

The Planting Starts

Doesn't look like much. But I got about a third of the garden planted. The weather has be been cold and rainy so I have not been in a hurry to get seeds in the ground. So far four rows of early bi color "sweet chorus" corn. I have three more varieties of corn that will be planted at different times for a later harvest, one row of leaf lettuce a mixture of Cimmaron, Red salad, Tango, Slobolt, Green salad, and Royal oakleaf, one row of Olympia spinach which has a smooth leaf so it is easy to wash, one row of Chantenay carrots which are meant to be harvested as baby carrots, they will mature but are short, and fat, and one row of Lincoln peas. At top of the garden under the milk jugs are cucumbers, cantaloupe, and pumpkins. I have tomato's, zucchini squash, and yellow squash growing in the house. I hope to get them planted out in the ground this weekend. I still need a few Bell pepper plants. Looks like the weather is finally going to warm up. And gardening will be more exciting when everything starts to grow. :) AH

Garden Tractor Progress - 6 Cultivator

My son came by yesterday and help be get the cultivator finished, well almost. I still need to build a post for the V-plow, and hilling blades. I gave it trial run through the garden. It worked great. AH

Tree's in Bloom

These photos are a couple weeks old. Our Apricot trees in bloom. Unless we get a late frost there will be lots of fruit. AH