garden pictures

[boxofdelights]

Some pictures of what I'm doing in the garden this year. (The pictures are stored on LJ and I'm crossposting from DW to LJ; if you can't see them, please let me know.)

The potato mound, which is in the back yard, which is shady and also full of dogs. I made a windrow of sticks, filled it in with compost, stuck some potatoes 4" deep in the compost and covered the whole thing with landscape fabric. I'm hoping that the landscape fabric will keep the dogs from realizing that there is something edible in there.
It's 18' by 2' by 2', and contains 12 potato starts.

Here's what it looks like a week after a serious hail storm. The stalks that didn't get broken are all leafed out again. I must lift the landscape fabric and pile on more compost.


Here are some pictures of the strip between the sidewalk and the street, where I'm going to make a rock garden. It's 36' by 8'. I do not expect to get far this year. My first problem is this prickly bush which wants to take over the sidewalk and the driveway. It has had some previous terrible pruning. I'm starting to take out the crisscrossing, but every time I touch it I wonder, do I want this plant at all? It is extremely prickly. Also it self-layers, so if I wanted a Sleeping Beauty situation, I've got the plant material. Should I keep it?

ETA: it's a Crataegus douglasii (Douglas Hawthorn). http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/cradou/all.html says it is a valuable source of food and cover to wildlife. I guess I'm keeping it.
RETA: I was wrong about the hawthorn. It's a pyracanthus and it's going.

Comments

[laughingrat]

Aw, bless you for keeping the hawthorn, if the wild creeturs need it. <3

NO DOGS DON'T EAT THE POTATOES

[boxofdelights]

Well I'm not going to cry if they eat the potatoes the back yard is their domain after all it's just that the potatoes come from plants that are POISONOUS and I don't trust the dogs to distinguish between edible and POISONOUS they are dogs after all.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

If you don't have an absolutely clear idea of why to keep a bush that takes ongoing work, remove it post-haste. That's MY philosophy, at least.

[lookfar.livejournal.com]

Are home-grown potatoes better, the way homegrown tomatoes are? Because aren't potatoes pretty cheap otherwise?

[boxofdelights]

It is true, potatoes are cheap. Homegrown potatoes are yummier, but not anywhere near as much yummier as homegrown tomatoes.

I admit, I'm one of those gardeners who has a garden in order to garden. If I had to choose either the work or the results, I'd choose the work.

The great thing about growing potatoes is that almost all the work has to be done in early spring, before you can even think about planting other vegetables.

And then there is the psychological comfort of eating food you grew yourself.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Plus it's a hundred times more fun to find a potato in the dirt than in the bin.

[boxofdelights]

That is also true.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Maybe remove the hawthorn and put in another? Another rooted from cuttings, maybe. And train it as a tree? And put it somewhere wildlife might actually want to go, like the yard? (I guess sparrows like low plants in areas with foot traffic.) Prickly bush in the sidewalk strip suggests to me that someone had a tree once, cut it down, and didn't bother keeping the shoots cut.

A serviceberry would be similar for food, and less hassle for thorns. Or ... m. Sand cherry? Maybe not as protective.

[boxofdelights]

I was wrong about the hawthorn. It's a pyracanthus and it's going. Serviceberry is an excellent suggestion!