Planting Potatoes

I spent most of the day yesterday putting in my potatoes. Well… half of my taters. I planted two boxes in Yukon Gold as my early crop. Next month I will plant another two boxes in Russets as my main crop. But before planting them I had to get the boxes ready.

To hold potatoes I need a double-depth box (2 2×8’s stacked) that I fill half-way with soil. To do this I have bottomless boxes that are used as the second level and are held in place on top of a regular box with pocket hole screws. These screws can be backed out and the second level moved from box to box as I rotate crops each year. I mixed 1½ pounds of composted chicken manure into the soil of each box to enrich the soil.

Then I used a modified Stout method of planting. The Stout method sows the potatoes on top of the soil then covers them with a thick layer of straw mulch. Regular planting puts them down about 3” then mounds dirt up around the stalks as they grow to keep the tubers covered. I plant my taters an inch or so deep, then 1½” of mulch on top — as a start. As I plant them, I mark the locations with a craft stick just behind the seed-spud – careful not to stab it!

I planted the box in a checker-board fashion with 8 cells as potato and 8 cells as bush style green beans. I put 1½” of mulch over the potato cells – leaving a dimple over the potato for the shoot to rise through. No mulch on the beans yet; there are 9 bean seeds per cell, I’ll wait for them to sprout and get a little size to them before mulching to discourage weeds and retain moisture – I don’t want to discourage my beans. As the potato plants get tall (12″ or so) , I’ll mound up more mulch around the stalks to keep the tubers that will grow from them covered. Sunlight makes the taters turn green and toxic. The mulch makes it easy to reach in and pull out young taters as they get to be golf ball sized. The deeper spuds will get large and be harvested later.

The white grid-like thing is one of two planting guides that I made from PVC pipe fittings; this one helps me plant things 1 or 9 plants to a cell, the other is made to plant 4 or 16 plants per cell (it’s made as 4 quarters, 16 get 4 plants in each quarter – I just eyeball them). These take care of all the common planting schemes in the square foot gardening method.

My late crop potatoes will be co-planted with black beans. The late crop will be allowed to grow undisturbed for larger spuds, but I’ll use the same planting method. (NOTE: this co-planting scheme did NOT work out. Here’s why.)

It rained last night, so I’m off to a good start – as long as the frosts are over with; that would hurt the bean seeds. Since it is early April now the frosts should be done (here in Tennessee) but… ya just never know these days!

The Old Homestead: Life in the Mountains

Living in a semi-remote mountain area is a mixed blessing.

I call it a ‘blessing’ because it is primarily a good thing. It is for us at least. The beauty and grandeur of The Great Smoky Mountains region is breath taking. Especially at this time of year. The peaceful serenity here is blissful. And the people in these parts are truly the salt of the earth. Mostly descendent from Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled here during pre-civil war times, they have their quirks and peculiarities – like any one. They’re ‘Mountain Folk’ from way back. They have their own way of doing things and thinking about things. But if you take a little time to get to know them and don’t come in determined to “reform” them over night, they’ll welcome you into the fold and be some of the best friends you could possibly want. Continue reading “The Old Homestead: Life in the Mountains”

Prattle: Wireless Blondie

I went down to check on my Mom this morning. She lives in her own house on the property my wife and I own and live on. It’s a whole lot more convenient to look in on her and help her out when she’s living a couple hundred feet away than when she was in Nebraska. Normally I drop in on her mid-day with the mail, today I needed to follow up on yesterday’s excitement, so I went down first thing this morning. Continue reading “Prattle: Wireless Blondie”

A Challenging Commute

I arrived at work at 7:30 AM, following a grueling 150 foot commute. The traffic was terrible. Normally both dogs march along shoulder to shoulder at the ends of their leashes. I tell Cochise, “Play yard,” or “Home” or “Mail box”, or (his least favorite) “Work” and he heads off in the right direction. I tell Blondie, “Stay with Cochise” and she obediently strides along beside him wherever he goes. Normally, but not today. Today I’d started the pickup earlier to warm it up before Marie heads into town and her work and Blondie really, really wanted to go for a ride; so when we came down the steps she was intent on going that direction. Cochise smelled something fascinating down in the yard and really, really wanted to go that way to check it out. So they strained in opposite directions, neither one in the direction I needed to go. We worked it out eventually, but it was a disorganized swirl instead of the usual orderly parade.

Read more: What follows is a discussion of weather and gardening.

First Day of Spring?

Originally published Mar. 21, 2013 by Grit Magazine

I arrived at work at 7:30 AM, following a grueling 150 foot commute. The traffic was terrible. Normally both dogs march along shoulder to shoulder at the ends of their leashes. I tell Cochise, “Play yard,” or “Home” or “Mail box”, or (his least favorite) “Work” and he heads off in the right direction. I tell Blondie, “Stay with Cochise” and she obediently strides along beside him wherever he goes. Normally, but not today. Today I’d started the pickup truck earlier to warm it up before Marie headed into town and her work. Blondie really, really wanted to go for a ride; so when we came down the steps she was intent on going in that direction. Cochise smelled something fascinating down in the yard and really, really wanted to go that way to check it out. So they strained in opposite directions, neither one in the direction I needed to go. We worked it out eventually, but it was a disorganized swirl instead of the usual orderly parade.

Yesterday was the official first day of spring. It is cold and foggy this morning. There is a possibility of snow. I was wondering what happened, when I remembered something I saw at the Source of All Wisdom (Facebook), “The first day of spring and the first spring day are not necessarily the same, and can be separated by as much as a month.” I’m glad now that I didn’t put my potatoes in their garden boxes last weekend, I’ll do that next weekend. But I had planned on working at opening the garden for summer session this week.

The winter gardening session was disappointing; it was too wet and cold for much of what I grew. Still, we did get a fair bit of lettuce (until it got crushed by condensation that froze into ice on the inside of the greenhouse) spinach, beet tops, onion greens, garlic greens, carrot tops, as well as the last of the summer’s carrot roots. I got enough Brussels sprouts for one meal – but that is the best I’ve ever done with these sprouts; normally the looper worms gut the plants and kill them in days. By using a greenhouse vented with window screen I kept the moths away in the fall so the plants had a chance to grow to maturity for once. I had to cover the top vent with plastic after a particularly wet spell practically drowned them out as well.

The Swiss chard is just now getting any size to it. I’ll get one decent harvest from that when I pull it up to replant the box with something else.

On the positive side, our local Lowe’s store now carries composted chicken manure. That will help in rejuvenating the soil in my boxes. I used composted cow manure last year with disappointing results. Slowly, very slowly, I’m learning what works.

Wayback Whensday: Bush Brothers & Company

It is Way Back Whensday and so I’ve gone digging through the annals of history (or at least my articles index) to find something of historic significance that may also prove entertaining for you. Here is the story of a local agricultural company with deep roots.

These days a lot of large, industrial companies take it on the chin for their lack of concern over ecologic and community issues. Bush Brothers & Company, headquartered in Knoxville TN with processing plants in Chestnut Hill Tennessee and Augusta Wisconsin is not one of those. But that’s not surprising given the values and community concern of the company’s founder.

A History of Bush Brothers & Company

In 1867 Andrew Jackson “A.J.” Bush was born in the community of Chestnut Hill Tennessee, where he lived for most of his life, leaving only to receive a college education at nearby Carson-Newman College.

In 1891 A.J. married Sallie and they rapidly produced 6 children; four boys and two girls. Both A.J. and Sallie had a deep interest in their community and love for their family. In addition to being a mother of 6, Sallie acted as a midwife and nursemaid as well as training young girls the fine art of proper household management. A.J. had been a school teacher since graduating college, and was elected to the local school board.

Bush Brothers, Bush Bros., beans A.J. was always looking for ways to help his community and had developed an interest in the trade business. He decided to serve both interests by creating the A.J. Bush & Company General Store, which provided a convenient location for local residents to barter for goods that were not locally produced, as well as a training ground and legacy for his children to insure they would have a livelihood when grown. Continue reading “Wayback Whensday: Bush Brothers & Company”

Dealing with a Speed-Bump in Life

speed bump, problems, life, difficulties, It has happened to all of us; we’re cruising along the boulevard of life, one elbow out the window, our favorite happy tunes playing on the radio, hand tapping the wheel in time with the tempo. Everything is grand, and we’re having a great time. So great we miss the warning sign; “Bump Ahead’. Then BAM-BAM, we’re suddenly careening along, barely hanging on as we try to slow down and get off to the shoulder so we can assess the damage.

It’s never fun to feel like the wheels have been ripped out from under you, but when it sneaks up on you suddenly, out of the blue is especially devastating. What can you do? How do you proceed from here? Continue reading “Dealing with a Speed-Bump in Life”

AAADD Reaches Epidemic Proportions

A simple, yet frighteningly accurate description of a malady that has reached epidemic proportions – nearly everyone I know is suffering from it. Perhaps someone close to you also is afflicted with Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder or AAADD

My doctor tells me that the best treatment available for AAADD is to hire servants to do the things I forget to do and to keep track of the stuff I’ll misplace, then I can just lol around the house feeling like I’m being useful and keeping busy and things will get done in spite of me. Medicare won’t cover that treatment; I wonder if I could train the dogs for this… I’ll try that right after I water the flowers.

Happy Silly Saturday!

Cold Camping – An Unforgettable Scouting Experience

Hello Dear Reader! February 8^th is my birthday: Happy Birthday to me! Should you feel magnanimous enough to offer me a birthday gift, go here and tell the world what you think of this blog by leaving a review. I’d really appreciate that!

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During my early teen years my father encouraged me to join the Boy Scouts of America. I believe he felt it would make me more receptive to the idea later on of following in his footsteps and joining the military. It did not – sometimes I wish it had. But I did learn quite a bit while in the Scouts and I met some nice people – and a few weird ones.

Because we were a military family and my father’s duties required us to move to a new location annually, I experienced life as a nomad. As such, I got to taste life as a Scout in several different troops. Most were large, one was very large; more like an army than a troop, and I did my exercises and assignments, I earned my badges and did my best to stay out of the way until we folded our family tent and wandered off to Dad’s next assignment. I’ve never been very outgoing; I mean what’s the point, I’m going to move in a few months and just have to leave any friends I make behind; right?

But one troop was very different. Mom, and my younger bother and sister and I were deposited at Lincoln Nebraska, where Mom & Dad’s family were while Dad went to do a year in Viet Nam. The scout troop here was not an extension of a military base, not run like an ROTC program. It was quite small in fact; maybe 20 guys between 12 and 18 years old. The Scout Master; we will call him Mr. Preston, was very wise and quite cagy. He taught me more about life in the year I was there than all the other troops did combined. Not the least of which was something he told me once: “Today is the ‘good old days’ that you will look back on someday; enjoy them while you can.”

Winter Tent by beauford00 tent, camping, winter — Winter Tent by beauford00

One of the merit badges I earned while with this troop was my Cold Camping badge. To get it we had to prepare for and survive a minimum of three full days camped out – in tents – in weather that stays below 32 degrees.

One of the differences between this troop and the others was that when we went camping with Mr. Preston, we did not load our gear in a truck and board buses for the ride to the camp grounds. We divided up the gear among the campers, strapped it all to our back packs and hiked – with everything we needed on our backs – to the camp ground. If it was ten miles away, we hiked ten miles out and ten miles back. This time, we hiked in the snow.

We brought good tents, we brought extra ground cloths, we brought heavy sleeping bags and enough of the proper clothing to “layer” so we could stay warm when inactive, yet be able to skinny down some while chopping wood or wrestling with bears. I’m just kidding; we didn’t chop any wood – we beat the bears so THEY chopped the wood. We set up the tents in a ring and built a good fire pit of stones and earth in the center. We gathered LOTS of firewood! Continue reading “Cold Camping – An Unforgettable Scouting Experience”

Getting a Leg Up

One of my favorite humorist bloggers and authors, Charles Gulotta, once posted an article in which he discussed the trials and travails of Restless Leg Syndrome. It’s quite entertaining and I don’t mind at all if you go read it (if you haven’t seen it already) before we proceed. Go ahead, I’ll just have another cup of coffee while you’re away.

Oh, good, you’re back. Have you ever had such problems?

The only time I myself ever had such an experience was in Junior High School after having encountered multiple knee injuries while participating in football, wrestling, gymnastics, and track & field stuff. On this otherwise normal day, I was coming down the long, winding central stair case of the four-story school when my left knee suddenly decided it wanted to be somewhere else and departed, claiming it would meet up with the rest of my body parts in the cafeteria at lunch time. Continue reading “Getting a Leg Up”