Gardening can be humbling. It’s such an act of faith. And I would submit that it’s very good for most of us to come to terms with our basic natures, be they obsessive or careless. I’ve often heard that the fastest path to personal growth is mindfully working through a close relationship with another person. But I think that gardening also pushes a lot of hot buttons for many of us, and gives us an opportunity to observe our (sometimes unhealthy) reactions to adversity.
All of this is by way of introduction to my potato harvest. (sigh) Jan loves potatoes. Especially little fingerling potatoes. So I bought Russian fingerling potatoes and put them in the ground. Lots of them. They grew and looked gorgeous. They took up a lot of space. We waited. Some of them bloomed. We waited. Finally, the vines started to die back. So we dug one up. I got half a pound of potatoes from that one vine. Not bad. Not fantastic, but not bad.
So I waited another couple of weeks, then dug up the rest of the vines. The first vine I dug up had very few full-size potatoes. What a bummer. Then the next looked about as bad. Quite a few tiny, marble or date size, potatoes, but few “fingerlings”. So I keep digging and collecting my marbles. And I’m talking to myself, trying to find a positive angle to having devoted so much space to these things for so long (months!). Um, lesson learned? Not positive enough. Hm, blog fodder? Ack. Improving the soil tilth? Lame. I don’t know.
In the end, I got one basket full:
Maybe 2-3 pounds. Jan says it’ll feed us for quite a few meals. And he actually loves sautéing the little marbles in butter, and eating them whole (he’s so feakin’ positive; it kills me).
I have since read that red potatoes do best in our climate. Maybe I’ll blame it on poor variety choice! Yeah, that’s it! Also, I’m going to give these potato bins a go. That way, I can put them in the backyard, and save the space in the front veggie beds for something more reliable and with a shorter season.
On a brighter note, an older woman walked by the house this morning while I was watering and called me the “tomato queen”. It might have been snarky; I can’t tell. But I choose to take it as a complement. A bit later, I met someone from the neighborhood who stopped to chat about the tomatoes. Our conversation wound around and we ended up talking about Austin. He waxed wistful about the Hill Country, then cheered me on, saying that it’s people like me that will bring more personality to this area. Yay! That’s the whole point! But it still doesn’t negate the fact that the primary recreational opportunity in this area is shopping. There’s just not much to be done about living where it’s flat and dry. Drink more, I guess.
18 July 2008 at 11:24 pm
I feel your pain. I have a garden full of large tomato plants that refuse to stop jettisoning their blossoms. My only consolation is that my peppers are starting to look good. Keep on with the good work.
16 March 2009 at 9:03 pm
[...] in the backyard. This is my first year to try this method. Last year’s potato harvest was less than stellar. And since we don’t want to put planting beds in the backyard with the doggette, these seemed [...]