A Little Gardening

This morning I planted peas and potatoes. Before I forget, someone asked in a comment – these are the bags I use for potatoes. They’re 30 gallon size. I used them last year and after harvesting the potatoes, I dumped all the dirt into a couple of Rubbermaid tubs and stored it under the solar panels. I didn’t bother to wash out the grow bags but put them in a box and kept them inside the garage. They still look brand new.

I did get a lot of potatoes. I didn’t weigh them but I probably got 15 to 20 pounds of potatoes from each bag. This year, I’d like to plant at least 6 grow bags of potatoes. Last year I only planted 2 bags.

After I dug out the potatoes, I spread them out on an old sheet and left them in the shade for a couple of days so the dirt dried, then I rubbed the dirt off with my hands and spread them on another old sheet in a corner in the basement in a room that stays cool and has no windows. They lasted til I used them all up. I started digging around in the dirt and finding potatoes to use as soon as they were big enough to harvest but I cleaned out the bags about the middle of October probably.

Oscar is so afraid of those scary, black bags! 🙂

I planted one 4 x 8 bed in these peas.

I’m trying to decide if I want to plant another 4 x 8 bed in peas or plant okra. I still have a good bit of okra from last year but that’s because a neighbor shared a lot of his okra with me. I don’t know if I have enough to make til next summer and I’d hate to run out but I’d sure like to have a bunch of peas.

Another consideration is that okra makes til the first frost so we wouldn’t remove it from the bed til after that. The peas will probably be ready to be pulled out by the end of July (if not sooner). That gives me time to get the bed ready to plant a fall crop – either more peas or beets and carrots.

I think I’m going to go with another bed of peas.

Chad made the 4 x 4 beds for me and we only used three of them last year so I’m going to put the fourth one out. We’re planting tomatoes (10 plants), squash, peppers, eggplant and brussels sprouts in 5 gallon buckets so that leaves me with three 4 x 4 raised beds for planting something.

As of now, I have one 4 x 4 bed that has strawberries; one 4 x 8 bed with asparagus, one 4 x 8 bed with peas and will probably plant the third 4 x 8 bed with peas. I laughed when I planted the one bed of peas. I went out with three packs of peas and didn’t even use an entire package. Way different from the amount I planted in Texas but way easier!