Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Returning to harvest and photograph.
I’m brushing ants from the backyard table as I write this under the shade of our new garden umbrella – such is the heat wave that descended during our holiday
One of the really great things about going away in the summer is the changes wrought in one’s absence… and I don’t mean from lack of watering 🙂 We were really fortunate that a friend offered to caretake our garden and dog while we were gone (a landscape gardener no doubt – he edged my lawn!) so things got watered and generally paid attention to. I planted a few things before we left that have begun sprouting in my absence, but the biggest surprise of all was the potatoes.
Just as I was leaving I noticed that one of my potato plants looked like it was wilting off and I figured that it must be due to the wet weather. From what I understood, the weather remained grey until only a couple of days before our return, so I wasn’t surprised to discover a second plant completely keeled over when I inspected the garden on Thursday night. Ah well, I figured, that’s just the way some years go.
Except…… when I cleaned the plants up on Friday afternoon I was pleased to discover that there were in fact several fully formed potatoes in those burlap bags – firm of flesh and ready to eat. And not tiny ones either – but some fairly large as far as Yukon Golds go. I’ve got another three bags that look as though they are on their way to harvesting too, though I’m a bit bewildered because my plants have not flowered and it seems a little early for them to be done.
The other big harvest yesterday was the shelling peas which were just plumping up when we left town. Normally I don’t harvest all of something at the same time, but as the vines were turning brown I realized it was this weekend or never for this particular batch. I’ve shelled them all as of this afternoon and put half in a salad to take to a party, freezing the other half for later use. I’m going to plant more peas tomorrow for a fall crop, as well as a number of other things for fall and winter.
I’ve also returned to summer squashes galore, which is a big improvement over the yellowing leaves I was fretting over in June. I’m hoping that we are finally at some sort of weather truce for now, whereby I can just expect things to grow as normal. We will see.
One Comment on “Returning to harvest and photograph.”
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Red Cedar 
Have you given thought to potato towers? I like the idea of the yield in a small space (like your burlap) but have been reading mixed results online.
Glad you guys are back, living vicariously through your gardening tales.