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Edible Garden

Little ittty bitty flower buds

are showing on several of our citrus trees. They seem to be pretty happy in the greenhouse, and are going about the business of being citrus trees, with all that that entails.

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Edible Garden

Citrus like a greenhouse

I have now moved all of my citrus trees into the greenhouse. They visibly prefer the higher humidity there. All but two of my new citrus are showing top growth, which means they have started rooting!!

Buddha’s Hand. The leaves don’t look great … it grew indoors under lights. It has new growth. I hope the next set of leaves are deep green!
Categories
Edible Garden

Spring in the greenhouse

Things are growing in the greenhouse on this Spring day. And these trimmings and first harvest will be participating in our brunch this morning.

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Edible Garden

So much has changed …

… since I started this project – a straw bale garden. Here we are, in the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Borders across the world are closed, schools are closed, there are lines at Costco and empty shelves. The future is very uncertain right now.

The project has taking on different meaning. Maybe it’s not just an idle hobby, but perhaps it will feed us and our friends when things are harder to come by – either because of supply, or costs.

My grandmother lived through two world wars, depression, inflation, famines, and being a refuge. Her stories were part of my childhood, as she was my minder after school until I was around 12, because my mother worked.

While this outbreak is unprecedented, the basics still apply – we need to eat. We need shelter. We need community. And medicine, but that’s a different blog. As a person with T1D, I guess I should figure out how to make insulin … Until a few months from now, I’ll be focusing on growing food.

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Edible Garden Potatoes Straw Bale Garden

Congratulations, you are with potato.

… You should be feeling movement soon, and in 60-80 days, welcome a harvest of new potatoes.

I planted the seed potatoes elbow deep into the straw bales – I create a tunnel of sorts, added some soil, then the potato at the bottom of the bale. Potatoes develop tubers between the location of the seed potato and the surface of the soil. The theory is, that the bale is fluffy enough to allow the potato to make lots of tubers without the need for repeatedly hilling up soil.

I have never planted anything elbow-deep inside of a straw bale. I imagine, giving a pelvic exam to a cow could be a bit like that – probably less scratchy. Weird. Long sleeves are warranted.

Now, two bales are planted with seed potatoes, and I added beet seeds and radish seedlings to the surface. This is done. But more potatoes must be planted!!!

If all goes well, we should have some radishes to eat beginning of April, beets and potatoes about a month later. So exciting!!!

Digging a home for my seed potatoes
Planting a seed potatoes, elbow deep into the bale.
Two Bales with potatoes inside, beet seeds, and radish seedlings on top!

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Edible Garden Potatoes Straw Bale Garden

Time to plant some potatoes!!

My seed potatoes arrived finally today from the Potato garden! I am very excited to get these spuds started early. I want fresh potatoes end of April!!! Think that’s impossible? Let’s see what happens!

Potatoes as early as End of April, or a new clutch of victims for my cruel black thumb, feared among tomatoes and other heat-loving plants.