This summer I am trying out the method of intensively growing potatoes in old tires. I wrote about it back in this post if you want more details. Essentially the goal is to grow more potatoes in less space, and reuse some old tires in the process. So far, so good with the tires experiment. I am growing five different varieties of potatoes: Fingerling Russian
Summer Garden Transition
The garden is undergoing the late summer change. I am allowing the lettuce to go to seed, so I can attempt to save them for next Spring. The arugula and spinach were allowed to do the same thing, and I pulled them out to dry about a week ago. I have never tried saving seed from my greens before, so this should be interesting… The
Friday Farm Trip
Sauvie Island is a small farming community about 15 minutes outside Portland. It’s on a small island with one small bridge connecting the area to the outside world. Come Springtime, there is an ever revolving U-pick produce bonanza. And this is probably my favorite way to spend a Friday evening. Although I love supporting the local farmer’s markets, it’s even better to carpool out straight
June Harvests
Things are trucking along quite well on the ‘ole urban homestead this June. We are happily reaping some of the rewards from our perennial plantings last year. The two cherry trees have enough fruit to snack on between breaks in yard work. The artichokes have been prolific! We had a feast of them last night for dinner. I left about half of the artichokes to
Office Produce
I have been bringing excess produce into the office now for about a month, every Wednesday. This has really kept my vegetables on a steady production schedule – trimming things back every Wednesday morning just encourages the plants to produce replacements by the weekend, when we typically pull more from the garden for our dinners. For some reason my beet leaves and swiss chard leaves
Potato Tire Stacks: Progress
This past winter I decided to try growing potatoes in tires. I have never grown potatoes before, mainly because it seems they take up a lot of space. Living in a small urban lot, space is a premium. The method is basically planting 2-3 seed potatoes per tire. Once the leaves get high, you add another tire and fill with dirt, leaving about 4″ of
Flops and Fertilzer
Unfortunately, I have to admit the first year of starting seeds indoors has been a flop. Not all is wasted. I learned some good lessons, like how long to keep the grow light on… I also managed to just direct sow a lot of my seeds when the indoor versions were taking too long. The only big disappointment has been the five varieties of tomatoes
Garden Pests
The last few days I have begun to notice some pest damage to my plants outside. This morning I took a nice long stroll with a cup of coffee and inspected the situation. Slugs have been munching on the collard greens and the raspberry bushes. I have also noticed holes in some melon and squash starts, which is another sure sign of slugs. There were
Spring Vegetables
“We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.” -Anonymous My grandfather had a good day today. He was lucid for most of the day, which was wonderful, and I was able to have a nice, short visit with him. We talked about our normal subject: how the garden is growing. Between these ups and downs, it’s a really