Re: [gardeners] my veggie garden

Allen and Judy Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:03:42 -0500 

All right Margaret. Nothing in the potato world will taste as good as those you
grow yourself. The flavor  is so much better than potatos that have been in
storage for who knows how long. Plus you won't have to eat the chemicals they
spray on them to keep storage potatos from sprouting or rotting.
    Where generally are you gardening? I would like to plant the gold variety
myself. Don't know if it would do well in SE Central Texas. I have to plant my
potatos in Jan for spring harvest, for fall I have to plant by Aug 15th.
    Allen
    Bastrop Co.,Tx
    Zone 8/sizzling









Margaret Lauterbach wrote:

> We dug up all but two hills of a 20-foot row of Yukon Gold spuds yesterday.
>  Left the two hills because the vines weren't quite dead.  Have an
> overflowing liquor box of nice-sized taters, most of a size for baking.
> Yum!  They were planted St. Patrick's Day, and I bought seed potatoes
> locally.  Yukon golds have few eyes, so you have to plant the whole potato,
> usually.  That gets expensive when you also have to pay shipping.  Local
> garden stores have started carrying more and more seed potato varieties,
> fortunately.  I've got to work on them to get them to carry Green Mountain
> and/or Butte.  Friends swear by Butte, and say microwaved Buttes taste just
> like baked potatoes, but I get poor production out of them, and none of
> baking size.  Green Mountain are good, however.
>
> I have Kennebec and Red Pontiac taters still in the ground.  Nowhere near
> ready to pick.  Pulled some nice-sized beets yesterday, and see I have my
> favorite green beans are ready for picking: Contenders.  I pressure cook
> them with diced bacon, and nothing is better anywhere.  People who don't
> like green beans love Contenders.  They don't freeze well, but for eating
> fresh they can't be beat.  In fact I planted a second row of Contenders in
> the now-vacated tater row.  45 days to maturity.  Few seed companies carry
> this old variety anymore, but they should.
>
> I'm growing Sugar Buns early SE corn, and it has tasseled, two ears per
> stalk.  At least it doesn't have kernels on the tassels like Precocious
> did.  Seeds were available locally, and a friend always grows this,
> followed by Incredible.  I did too.  But having read Tom Clothier's review
> of Bodacious, I regret not having planted that instead.  Maybe next year.
> Tassels on Incredible (another SE corn) are "in the boot," as Kay says.  I
> can look down into the stalk and see the tassels.
>
> I didn't plant a single lettuce seed this year.  Two raised beds are still
> empty, but my chiles are looking guuuud.  Brent Thompson, on Chile-Heads,
> said he grew chiles in practically straight steer manure, and they grew
> strong and vigorous.  Steer manure doesn't really have much in the way of
> nutrients, but Brent knows more about growing chiles (and propagating them)
> than anyone I know, so I added a strong mixture of steer manure and alfalfa
> meal (whose fertilizing qualities have been extolled on one list or
> another), and my chiles are looking dark green, sturdy, and generally
> excellent.  Finally got them all free from @#$%^ crabgrass that got a
> foothold when the garden was too soggy to walk in.
>
> I've been paying 49 cents a pound for baking size potatoes.  Now I have a
> big batch of better baking potatoes, right out of me garden.  Hurray!!!
> Margaret