Link to growing potatoes in hay

Stasia shared the link to the site for growing potatoes in hay. You meet the nicest people in
Blogger Land. http://www.chirotoons.com/potatoes.html

Potatoes in Hay

I received a question about growing potatoes in hay. If you google it I am sure there are many articles about it. I did nothing special and have talked to others who know of people who do it. I got the seed potatoes, mine were larger so I cut them into sections, you have to make sure there are several eyes on each piece. I just put the pieces on the grass probably about a foot apart, then I put a layer of hay over that. As the plants grow and poke up through you add another layer of hay. The directions I had said to have the pile eventually be a foot high, I never got mine that high,lol. I probably put about 3 layers of hay and then got busy with other things and sort of forgot about them. I believe I have mentioned it is hard for me to stay on task!!

This Fall as Jim and I were out walking around he asked how the potatoes did, my reply was "I don't know , I forgot about them" So they had gone with no extra watering or anything. We looked and I did not see any plant so thought they were dead. I got a rake and started pulling the hay back and there they were, little nests of potatoes. The red ones did the best and there was not much in the way of dirt on them. I mentioned to a friend of mine about doing this and she said her friend had grown hers that way for years. Now, the friend puts down a thin layer of hay first, so I may try that next spring. All in all a satisfactory way to plant. Hope this helps.

Chickens, Goats and other stuff

So far we are having a fairly mild fall, more 60 degree days in October then September. Mostly we are running 10-15 degrees above normal. I am not complaining at all, today is sunny with a bit of a breeze.

Jim and I worked on winterizing the barn this weekend. Jim is so good, he listens to what I want and then tries to make it happen. I was trying to figure out how to block the breeze and still have some light in the barn. This is more an animal shed then a real barn, it has half doors with hinges that allow them to be swung up in the summer and down in the winter. Thing is that there is still that bottom half which allows the winter winds to whistle in. I came up with the idea of using some of the hog wire which is very heavy duty, covering it with plastic and then chicken wire to prevent the goats from tearing the plastic off. I think the goats got the reputation for eating strange stuff due to their habit of tasting everything. While you are working out there you have your jacket, pants, gloves all nibbled on. They have it all over cats when it comes to curiosity.

I am now letting the chickens run free during the day, I leave their door ajar so that they can come and go. I have to be careful not to leave it too open as the goats go in and eat the chicken's feed. The chickens have a new game, riding the goats, cracks me up.


When the first taste of cold weather hit I decided to dig up my herbs and try bringing them in. They were growing so nicely I thought "what the heck, give it a try". So far success. I have oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, marjoram all growing nicely. I have just planted some more basil in another planter. In the back you can see the Tarragon. I missed it the first time and it got frosted, does seem to be coming back. This is one of those nothing ventured nothing gained things. I also brought in one of my planter with Petunias and they are happily blooming away.
I also learned that those row covers work very well. When I was out digging things up I got pooped out, there was still a patch of Oregano, so I tossed the row cover over it. Several weeks later after snow, freezes etc I was out and happened to pull up the cover, lo and behold there sat the Oregano doing fine. I am very impressed and plant to buy more to cover the Spring crops. I am busy planning for next year's garden.

Last year I learned that yellow squash grows huge and can take over the garden. This year I planted the squash next to a fence and had success with it growing up the fence. This year I learned that Broccoli and Cauliflower also grow huge , who knew!! I have a hard time finding the words to describe how wonderful vegetables fresh from the garden taste. The stems on the broccoli are tender, not the woody stuff you get in the stores. So, I have staked out a whole new area so that the plants will have plenty of room to spread. I also will move the strawberries as they need more space.


I mentioned that I had read a hint on another blog about growing potatoes in hay, so I gave it a try. Anything that does not require me to dig is high on my list. The results were great, this is even with my forgetting about them and not giving them much in the way of care. We harvested about 20 pounds of nice red potatoes, and again the flavor of fresh is so wonderful. You rake back the hay and there is this little nest of potatoes of all sizes. I will be doing this again next year with more of a variety. There was so so luck with the onions, much of the garden really needed more sun and heat.


Making more progress in my attic craft/sewing/painting/office area. I am in the process of painting a couple of shirts as Christmas presents for a friend. This was the motivator for my latest spurt of organizing, I could not find the pictures or the shirts, yikes! So a day spent moving things around, found the shirts, pictures and much more. Makes me feel better when I can make some progress in the organizing department.


Wonderful to be back, I am busy doing catch up on everyone's blogs. Best to you all.

Cannot believe how much time has passed!!

When I saw the date on my last post I was amazed. I have thought about things to write but never sat myself down and made that post. I hope all has been well, we continue to bumble along with highs and lows. The Summer was the Summer that never was, I think I only turned the air on a day or two. My garden did not do as well as hoped due to cool temps and too much rain. Once again it was a learning experience so all is not lost.

Earlier today I was gathering up my pumpkins and was surprised that there were more then I had thought. They did fairly well, more heat would have resulted in larger and riper pumpkins, but I am happy that for the first time I actually had ones to pick!! The largest one on the right I was barely able to lift, was also hard to get my arms around it. Right behind is a pile of vines with the mini pumpkins I planted, they are so cute. As you can see many did not ripen, this was a problem for many growers, of course they grow hundreds,lol.

The goats continue to amuse and eat and eat. They are all healthy and active. Now that the soybeans have been harvested I can once again take them outside their pasture to roam in the woods. Once the soybeans were ripe they would head that way which was a huge no no!!

They started on the fields around the house yesterday morning and by the afternoon all was done. The machines they use are amazing, they had two or three harvesters and a couple of tractors

which follow along with the harvesters to load the grain. From there the tractors go to the semi's to off load the beans. Every time I see this I wonder what the original settlers would think to see this. How hard they had to work with their wooden plows and one horse or manpower to plow and scythes to harvest.

The Chickens thrive, no eggs yet but soon I am sure. I like my variety pack. Sorry this picture is a tad bleary no sure why. She has the pretties colors, what kind she is remains a mystery. I think the hatchery got some extra ones in by mistake. I ordered 10, but later realized that I had 12. Within a couple of days I lost two. The count is still not right as I have 3 Gold Stars, 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte, 1 that looks like a pheasant as in the picture. There are 2 Black Australorp, 2 Buff Orpinton and 1 that is black with white you can see her in the picture. . They were busy eating the grain the goats spill.

Nice to be back, looking forward to catching up.

Best to you Barbara

Ah, looks like another pretty day!!

We had two beautiful days over the weekend, at last!!! Was sunny, moderate temperatures and a nice breeze and today looks like it will be super also.

On Friday night as Jim and I were walking around the yard we were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of Monarch butterflies. All Summer I have been moaning about the lack of bees and butterflies and here they were. Now as we watched the flew into the trees and proceeded to settle in for the night. This is the first time either of has seen a sight like this and both ran for the house and our cameras. Next morning they were gone on their way, leaving us with a beautiful memory. On Saturday our lone Hummingbird was joined by about 6 others. I enjoy watching their antics and listening to them peep and chatter. I spent some time snapping pictures, nothing spectacular but fun.

The bees are also back, here they are enjoying the obedient flowers. He would start are the bottom and work his way up the stalk. These are my pink shrub roses, they start out the solid pink and then as they mature they develop a white border. This bush has been covered with roses since early in the season, amazingly prolific. This is one of my hollyhocks, looks like tissue paper, as time goes on they seem to interact and the colors change , this one being a blush color with the slightly darker center.

So, now it is Monday and I am off to the store. Jim fixed my clutch over the weekend and we spent yesterday mowing most of the yard. With two of us mowing it was great, by myself it takes several days to get it all mowed. I only have a couple of hours left to do down one side.

Have a wonderful week my friends and thank you for stopping by.

Roses, Roses, Roses

I love roses, all kinds, all colors. I decided several years ago that I would only buy fragrant ones, that would help me narrow down the selection. It is amazing the variety of roses available. Now that we are in a new growing zone my choices have narrowed even more. I mentioned before that over last winter most of the ones I had in the yard were killed. This was sad, but also a learning experience. Our area is on the cusp of zone 4 and 5 which I knew, was told by local nurseries that zone 5 was fine. In trying to support local business I bought several that were quite pricey only to have them die. This Spring before I started buying I did some more checking. Was very surprised to find when I started reading the tags closely that places like Home Depot in Albert Lea were selling zone 5 roses. This store is north of me, so I was unhappy to see that they were selling plants as perennials that really would not have that great a chance to survive. I mentioned it several times to the people at the customer service desk with less then spectacular results. Now I am only purchasing ones labeled zone 4.
The first rose is called Fragrant Cloud, and ok, it is a zone 5,lol. I planted it close to the house and am hoping it will have enough protection and come back. This is one of those roses that the scent fills the yard. The blooms are beautiful but only last a short time. The second one is called Maria Stern and is a sub zero rose. The scent is not real "rosy" but nice. The blooms last for days and is a joy in the garden. This is a shrub rose and one of the few that came back, it's roots are closer to a wild rose and so much hardier. It also has a wonderful fragrance and has been covered with blooms almost constantly. I also have a beautiful light pink shrub rose and have added a white one. The plants are full and the roses grown in clusters, they grow quickly and get quite large. I hope to have rose gardens in many sections of the yard, so the air will be perfumed with more then the farmer's "natural" fertilizer.

I have the yard pretty much planned out so will be busy for many years bringing those ideas to reality. I was telling Jim it is like having our own park, so when all is done we will be able to stroll through the woods and gardens. I have paths planned and just found plans for a wonderful arbor with a bench. I envision a variety of gardens and paths with benches, places to sit and enjoy nature. We have so many beautiful trees and once we clear out the downed ones and the damaged ones it will be beautiful. I also want to plant more flowering trees so that in the Spring we will have wonderful color after the long winter months. Ah, so many plans, I have a feeling I will never truly be done with it all. Another decision I have made is to move the vegetable garden and to enlarge it. I know that for sure the strawberries need more room. All in all a non ending learning experience. This is not a bad thing, I firmly believe that it is so important to continue to learn and expand our horizons.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and I will post more as things progress. Best to you.

Flowers, weeds who is winning??

So many of my flowers have come back, which is a good thing. The downside is that so have the weeds. I was out in vegetable garden last night and just shocked at all the weeds that had popped up in just a few days. Now, if I could only cross the weeds with the things I want we could have giant, indestructible plants. My garden has it's highs and lows, some things have done very well. The cool temperatures and lots of rain have stunted other things. It had been predicted that we would be in the high 80's , low 90's this week. Yesterday it got to 71 and not much higher today so far. For me that is fine, although wearing long pants and flannel shirts in July and August is a little strange. The plants need the higher temperatures to thrive, my sunflowers have just opened within the last couple of weeks.

Things are strange all around, we will not have an apple harvest this year. There were lots of blooms on the trees, but no bees to pollinate and then high winds that stripped the blossoms from the trees. I do not see more then a dozen apples on all three trees. I am finally seeing some bees, but no more then a few each day. The same is true for the butterflies and humming birds. Within the last week I have finally seen one lone hummingbird where in the past there were 8 or 10. I am looking into how one goes about having a small hive of bees so I will have better luck with crops nest year. I did buy some lady bugs this spring and released them, hopefully they will reproduce and thrive. I see them now and then so know that a few are around.

Here is a picture taken several weeks ago of my new addition to the family. I read that chickens will help with the fly population and other insects, so found a hatchery online and ordered some little peepers. Most of them will lay brown eggs the others will lay colored eggs, cool. There are Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, gold Star and Silver Laced Wyandotte. The ones that lay the colored eggs are called Americana. Jim has worked for the last several weekends to build them a coop. He has closed off the end of one stall, putting 3 kinds of wire and framing it in for strength. He also built a very nice nesting box for them. This weekend he was to finish the coop so I could move them out of the basement. Unfortunately, he had to stay at work as they had several pieces of equipment fail. So I have been trying to get the rest of the wire up and secured. These guys are far to large to be in cages. Wish me luck, that chicken wire has a life of it's own, I have scratches all over in spite of wearing gloves. Will post pictures when done so you can see the girls in all their glory.

I hope every one is having a wonderful summer, amazing to think it is almost over.