Potatoes, potatoes and more ... experiments...

Potatoes...On Sunday we dug up all of our potatoes. There are Idaho reds and another kind that I forgot to mark, but they are whiter. They won't be enough to feed us through the long winter, but there are enough to enjoy. I wanted to get them out of the ground as rain is forecast to join us on Friday and its much more fun to dig up potatoes in dirt than in mud. 

Potatoes... One small note if you are planning on storing potatoes and haven't before, do a bit of research. I thought if I stuck them under our house, they would be fine, however, this is not entirely true. Rather they were a little damp and started growing. So like the other golden rule "try and if it doesn't work, go back and read the directions" I got on Google and searched hither and thither for tips on storing potatoes. As I wasn't the first one to ask this, there was a lot of info. 1) let them dry on a newspaper for a week so the skins harden 2) store them in a dark ventilated container such as brown paper bag etc 3) if they rot or start growing, you are doing it wrong. So there are a few starters for you. I'll keep you posted as to how this is going.

and more experiments... with the dry weather, I was a little late on my winter plantings. Then the frost has been coming the last few days - not a hard killing frost, but enough to get me thinking that the winter garden may not be the smashing success that I'd like it to be. So what to do. I decided -since I don't have a green house - to try growing my lettuce and spinach under my garage grow lamp. Below are the pots with potting soil (i thought that might be appropriate) and head lettuce, leaf lettuce, and spinach. I will see if they can be fruitful and multiply in the warmer and sunnier conditions of my garage during the winter months.

In closing, rain is on the way and I for one am glad. I am not one of those whom the sun depresses (I read an article where the author - a PHD of some sort - claimed too many sunny days in a row depresses people... I'm not sure where he got his facts from), but I'm glad for some rain. It will help the water bill and the brown areas in our yard that have most likely forgotten what rain feels like.