Spudzinnabarrell - (n), faux German, see definition below

Spring 2010 - the good, the bad and the ugly thus far in the living laboratory:

Check out how crazy happy my oregano plant is. This has been its best year ever & I've been regularly snipping bits off to dry the leaves. That's a bok choy plant in the foreground which also seems to be flourishing. Too bad only one survived the early spring transplanting.

Corn and beans are progressing, as are the zucchini and muskmelons I planted in between the clumps. I ate a couple of ripe raspberries when I stopped by on my way to work yesterday.

But the tomato & eggplant plants I've grown from seed and the replacements I've bought at the farmer's market are looking pretty dim. They're not growing well at all, and a couple more died. I'm blaming the weather since it got unseasonably cold a few times this spring. But perhaps there was something preventative I could have done (more mulch when I saw the temperature was going to drop or some other kind of covering?). The silver lining is that the "gold current" cherry tomato plants which have spread as prolifically as the dill and fennel plants are having another good year. Anyone want one? They produce loads of small yellow tomatoes - perfect size for salads. I've got plenty of plants to spare.

But a brand new thing this year is my experiment growing potatoes in a barrell. In late March I bought a couple of old-looking yukon golds, kept them around until the sprouts were fairly prominent, and planted them in a plastic trash can I had drilled holes in for drainage.

Here's how the experiment was looking yesterday morning:



Looking good, eh? Well, then I did this:

Are you crazy Steve?? Why would you cover up those perfectly good potato plants?

Well, because I learned that potato tubers grow in the space between the soil surface and where the plants have started. All I needed to do (supposedly) is leave some foliage above the soil line. The plants will continue to grow and probably spill over the side of the barrell in a month or two.

Harvest depends upon if you like new potatoes or want to wait for the full-size ones. New potatoes are around once the plants have finished flowering. But full tuber maturity will be in late fall after the plants have died back completely. Decisions, decisions.