Why We Garden in the Winter

• No bugs
• Fresh greens in our back yard
• A head start on lettuce, spinach, etc in the spring
• Because we can!

Collards beginning to bolt. The broccoli-like flowers are good to eat.

Right front bed ... spinach coming along.

Winter Greens Under Blue Sky

Winter Garden Chores

Evalyn enjoys helping with the garden chores. Today, she helped plant the potatoes. First, she placed the prepared potato chunks in nice straight rows. Then, she and Popsi covered them with a thick layer of leaves. Afterwards, we picked salad greens.

Seed Potatoes

Seed potatoes, larger ones cut for higher yield,
drying at room temp for 2-4 days before planting.

Time to Plant Potatoes

The potatoes I ordered last fall from Gurney's Seed and Nursery Co. have arrived! These seed potatoes have many growth buds, aka "eyes". For greater yields, I will cut the larger ones into approximately 2-ounce pieces, making sure each piece has at least a couple of eyes. Then I will lay them out on newspaper to dry at room temperature for 2 - 4 days before planting next week.

The weather forecast looks promising! With little chance of rain into the middle of next week, I expect the soil to dry out a bit allowing me to prepare the potato beds. With expected temperatures in the 60's, I'll be happy to spend time in the garden surrounded by bird song and the peeping of frogs. Spring is coming!

Chosen potato varieties for 2019:
(2 pounds each, except Russian Banana 1#)
Mountain Rose - early, red skins and flesh
Purple Majesty - deep purple color, inside and out, buttery flavor
Purple Viking - early, all-purpose potato, especially good for baking, purple skin, creamy white flesh
Yukon Gold - early, yellow-fleshed spuds, rich buttery flavor, great for baking or mashing
Russian Banana - fingerling, all-pupose potato, enormous yields