May 09 2009
Potatoes and peas have sprouted
Due to the depth required to grow potatoes, and the fact that there isn’t room in the raised bed gardens for them, I’m experimenting with growing them in a barrel this year. I planted them on April 23 and they are finally growing, so it took about 2 weeks for them to really start shooting up. A layer of dirt will be added once a few more shoots emerge. This should give them plenty of soil to produce lots of spuds, since new potatoes grow above the eye.
The peas are also starting to emerge. We had a few really nice spring showers this past week and things are really starting to grow. So far the rabbits have not bothered anything in the raised beds (the used kitty litter is doing a nice job of keeping them away from the hostas and iris). I did add a grid on top of the vegetable bed which makes it an official square foot garden now (the sections are each 12″x12″) and to keep the dogs out. That has been semi-successful, since the labs no longer run through the beds, however, I went out one morning to find a section that had been dug down to the bottom of the garden. Luckily it was a square that had not been planted yet.
It’s is still pretty cool at night (it was 43 degrees at 7:30 this morning), so still too early to plant anything but cool season crops like peas, broccoli, lettuce and leeks and these are all doing just fine in the raised bed.
