Impressive potatoes! Gardener’s Journal 9/26/11

I finally dug my potatoes this weekend – I was concerned about them rotting with all this rain, but they were fine and I was surprised to uncover several really large ones – both Red Pontiac and Russets. I haven’t weighed them all in yet, but I think the yield was pretty good – I have them curing in the garage since they were so wet and muddy.  I am planning to store them in an improvised root cellar – more on that later!  The beds I pulled the potatoes from will be used for the garlic planting in a couple of weeks or so – I need to add some more compost to improve the drainage and add some nutrients.  Once planted, I will mulch the bed with pine needles from a friend and leave it to go over the winter.

With the exception of the snake gourd (which I was growing for my son’s birthday party – which was this weekend but they weren’t ready – maybe they’ll make good Christmas presents!), the squash plants are all but dead – the powdery mildew took them all out really quickly and effectively!  Luckily, most of the fruit had set and was pretty mature, so the pumpkins are turning orange and the butternut squash seem to be ready – I didn’t harvest them since they still seem to be firmly attached to the stems – maybe they are still getting some sustenance from the stems, who knows?  I do have them all resting on wood so they won’t rot on the ground.

The raspberries are doing very well – now that the rains/cold weather has killed most of the wasps, the fruit is much safer to harvest!  I am told they are very tasty – unfortunately I am not a fan of raspberries so I harvest them (with love) for my family (and some special friends)!  I am hoping to get enough for jam (my youngest son likes to have it on his morning piece of toast), the homemade strawberry jam was sooo good I hope the raspberry jam is too.

The garden & I are awaiting the first frost with bated breath – just before it arrives I have to rush out and pick all the remaining tomatoes and peppers, and dig up all the sweet potatoes – it will be interesting to see how they big are since the groundhog enjoyed their leaves at various times this season.  I can tell you with confidence that row cover & dog hair doesn’t help too much at keeping him out! (Big holes to prove it!)

My leaf hunting will begin in earnest pretty soon – I have a new electric leaf vacuum/mulcher that I can’t wait to put into action.  I am going solicit all neighbors and friends to get their leaves and mulch them up for compost.  I was hoping to get one of my sons to do it, but so far not a lot of interest has been shown in the hard work department!