OH, forgot to add...

I did plant some potatoes from grocery store potatoes... LOL! I did it very early, and didn't have ANY problems with them sprouting! They were very pretty plants... even tho I wouldn't know a disease if I saw it, I think they were healthy. I couldn't wait to see what they were doing, so I dug them up last week. The taters were small, but there were quite a few of them! Russets... beautiful little crisp jokers too! I was so proud... :). I am definitely going to be doing more this fall this way. Next spring I'm hoping to get some different types of seed potatoes. :)

Hi Beth,

I'm glad to here your "experimental year" is going so well.

You harvest the onions when the tops naturally soften and fall over. Usually here in southern OK that is sometime between late June and mid-July, depending on each variety's days-to-maturity and how early or late I planted. You don't harvest early because the onions won't cure well or store well, and you don't harvest early just because a rainstorm, wind, child or dog knocked over the onion tops either. Just wait for them to naturally soften and fall over. It doesn't happen all in the same day, so when you see the necks where the stalks are attached to the plants beginning to soften and fall over, stop watering the onions at that point and wait for all of them to soften and fall over before you harvest.

I can't believe you dug up your potatoes already! Normally, most varieties are ready to dig between 90-120 days after planting, although technically you can harvest them and use them at any size. Did you only dig around the plants and remove some early potatoes (commonly called "new potatoes") or did you dig up all of them? In the future, if you wait for the plant foliage to yellow and die, you'll get larger tubers and more of them. : )

You may get more beans than you think, especially with the pole beans. Even if you don't, you're getting a lot of valuable experience.

I'm having fun too....most days. Today I am chained to the kitchen, putting up the first round of the broccoli harvest (freezing it). It is rainy here today (what's new?) so I probably couldn't be out in the garden anyway. Although putting up the garden's bounty is a very important part of raising your own food, I'd still rather be out in the garden any day of the week.

Hope the fun continues!

Dawn

Dawn,
I DID dig up ONE onion and use it right away... I'm like a kid at Christmas here... LOL! I'll wait on the rest.

YES, I dug 'em all up, plants and all... LOL!!! I went nuts on them! They hadn't even bloomed. It was a SMALL plot of them, only about fifteen plants. I got enough teeny potatoes to fill up half a loaf pan full! Most were golf ball size, some bigger, some TEENY! The whole idea behind the potatoes was to see how they grow. I THINK I need to amend my soil a lot more for a good amount of potato growth, but those did fairly well!

I just bought "Putting Food By" by Janet Greene. The storage of the crops fascinates me just as much as growing them! Of course with my garden this year it's a lot of SMALL amounts, I'm assuming it'll be just enough of each veggie and fruit for eating NOW. I am going to get a bushel of tomatoes from the Farmer's Market and put them up tho. Now that I can do it safely with the water bath method... pressure cookers still scare me a little... LOL! I've just heard too many horror stories and haven't gotten to use one yet. I'll overcome that fear. :) I'm going to do whole tomatoes and juice. Got any recommendations for me?

We'll have the rain tomorow! I did find out during the rainstorms in April we had 20 inches in 14 days... then on a couple days we had 7 inches... WOW! The state average is seven inches over, but we're over our quota for the year... LOL! The rice farmers are happy tho... :).

Beth

Hi Beth, Dawn,

Glad you're enjoying your "learning year." Next year you can have your "new potatoes" and large ones too. After the plants bloom, you can dig carefully around a vine and take out one or two small potatoes and leave the plant to continue producing. New potatoes and green beans are a garden favorite here.

Dawn, I usually spend Memorial Day putting up broccoli and sugar snaps. But this year no broccoli yet. It got planted late because the seed co backordered it, twice. And only enough peas to eat fresh. Yesterday, though I put up lambsquarters, spinach and radish tops mixed.

Like you I would rather be out in the garden than in the kitchen with the heat, but it has to be done.

mullberryknob,
THANKS girl. I've got that written down in my little gardening notebook... :).

Dawn,
I also wanted to let you know in spite of me and my panicky-ness, I've only used my MG granules ONCE. I did it a couple of weeks ago, thinking after all that rain the plants could use it. BUT, I'm not doing it EVERY WEEK like I did last year! I still have two bags of it left, but am trying to go more organic than I have been!

Plus, I've got everything scrunched in there, I don't need my plants to be as huge as they got last year... lol!

Beth