Roots

I wanted to try this little experiment for a couple of years. 

There are claims around the internet that you can grow potatoes in almost anything. Being short of garden space due to other experimental crops, I had these two exploded rain barrels that either had to be taken to the EcoStation or used for something that needed drainage.  That reminds me.  I must empty my rain barrels or I'll have three more potato containers next spring!

So, these were the only potatoes I planted this year.

 They grew and grew and grew.  I kept burying them in fresh soil and straw as they grew until I got tired of the whole exercise.  They were probably 3/4 full this morning though.  The greens just died off last week with the frost so I wasn't in a rush to harvest them.
 

However, yesterday we dug potatoes out of my brother-in-law's weedy garden and it was fun to unearth and discover all of the potatoes.  Like a treasure hunt, really.

So, today I was inspired to get out into the sunshine and have a treasure hunt of my own at home.  I pulled out some of the straw (nothing growing), then some soil (still nothing), then some straw (nothing) and more soil (still nothing), and finally at the very bottom of each rain barrel there were a few potatoes.  

Well, that was not like a treasure hunt at all.  We'll eat them for supper, but I'm sure the little bag of seed potatoes weighed more in the spring.   Poo.  I'll probably try one more time next year, maybe in another location.  It's not like it cost anything or took any time, and I got to procrastinate about that trip to the EcoStation.  Does that still make it a "win"?

The carrots were better.  Just so a remember, I want to hold off on eating carrots until after frost next year.  We always jump the gun and start eating our new carrots in July or August, but those ones taste vaguely of dirt.  Now they are sweet and yummy.

And unfortunately, we ate half of them while they still tasted like dirt.  Oh well.  Life is a learning process, right?

And the last gardening thing I did today was to finally pick our own apples.  Hail damaged and few, it's the first year that we've really had any apples to speak of on our own trees.  

 

The gardens and yard are almost ready for winter now.  I've got some chairs to put away and if I have time or inclination, I can still cut back a bunch of perennials, or I could leave them to trap snow.  Either way, I feel sort of on top of things in the garden this year.  Phew!  I have not always been able to say that.  Two years ago I was still looking about my frozen lawn chairs in February, unable to move them due to ice and deep piles of snow. 

Winter can still take its sweet time getting here though.  I'm in no rush.