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And now for something completely different.


Since I believe a large part of gardening is problem solving,
I love hearing about new solutions to old problems.
I have done a couple of "new to me" things this year and
will report on the success or failure of such adventures.
I would love to hear about other's endeavors.
     Here is an update on my potatoes.
I put a four foot by eight foot weed stop fabric on the smooth,
rototilled ground. (I rototilled the ground to hopefully get good
drainage).  I then put small clumps of garden soil (about a half cup
each) on the fabric about every twelve inches.  I then put a piece of
seed potato into each clump of soil and covered the piece of potato with
just enough soil to cover it. I then put an extension of one of my soaker
hoses to wrap through the area.  I then put down about 4 inches of
certified weed free straw over the whole 4X8 ft area.   Most of the seed
potatoes sprouted but with various sizes.  
     Since I was worrying about feeding them, I bought a $0.99 bag of
steer manure and shoveled out about half the bag onto the top of the
straw. (around the sprouted plants)  As the plants got bigger, I used up
the rest of the bale of straw, placing it around and up against the
plants.
      Yesterday, I tried to see if there were any potatoes growing in the
straw by carefully mining the straw around the largest plant.  When I
found
one, about the size of a golf ball, I picked it and pushed the straw
back. (the potato was very clean).
I want to see if this little excavation will hurt the rest of the plant. 
In the future I am going to try to carefully harvest the largest
potatoes, while leaving the small ones to hopefully get larger.  So far,
so good.

Stan             the cheap and lazy gardener

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