Friday, October 26, 2012

the potato tires

We are trying to grow potatoes in tires this year.
The tire method seems good for a few reasons.
1. You dont have to dig around for your potatoes. They will all be in the tire.
2.You can harvest them one tire at a time.
3.The black tire keeps the soil nice and warm which means we were able to start our potatoes early.

You start out with one tire. Put your seed potato in it and cover it with soil. As the potato starts to show its green leaves you cover it with more soil adding more tires as needed.

We are stopping with three. We heard of a woman who went six high!

We also have some lettuce planted with the potatoes and some beans. The beans will give the soil some good nitrogen. The potatoes will give the lettuce some shade. And everyone's happy!

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the radish trees

We are loving having a garden. This is the first time since we have been married that we have been in one place long enough to plant and watch grow and enjoy the fruits or vegetables of a garden!
Spring is slowly on its way and we are waiting a bit impaitently to get stuff into the groud. There is still a bit to keep us busy.
We have let some of our winter radishes go to seed. It is interesting. You dont usually see vegetables in their flower/seed form. I have yet to see the seeds, but the little pink flowers are pretty. And they are so tall! Little trees.
Nigel built us a pea wheel for the circle garden. I think it is going to look great once the peas start climbing.
 We have tried some mulch on the onions and carrots. After a bit of research we have decided to use dried pine needles from the paddock which have the added benefit of being laced with sheep poo. Nice right? And on top of this we have sprinkled coffee grounds which I collect from the cafe. I found a blog where this woman tried a bunch of different mulches. I might do some testing of my own!