Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries

That's right. I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving already. Above is my cranberry that is blooming. I never knew what the flowers looked like before. They are very pretty if a bit unassuming. We planted three of them near my back steps and three near my townhouse mates' back steps. Mine are alive. My townhouse mates have just one left. I found out they were draining their hot tube gadget in that bed. I'm pretty sure it killed them. The idea of giving them extra water was sound, but plants can be very sensitive to some chemicals. Hopefully the last one in the bed will spread out into the spots. The funny thing is earlier their plants were doing better. I think they had more peat moss in the bed. The soil the landscapers brought in was very alkaline so they struggled. We mixed in peat moss and mulched with pine needles. Mine now seems much happier than last year. I'm guessing the pH has lowered a lot. And in a couple of years it will probably be even better.

Last week I cut slips from the two kinds of sweet potatoes on my windowsill (Beauregard and Garnet). I also cut slips from the plants made from slips from Norma (Korean Purple, Purple, some unknown purple, and another unknown). So one bed is going to be the purple sweet potatoes from Norma and one will be the orange kind. As you can see the slips have rooted well in their canning jars.

The purple ones were all planted up today. I think tomorrow I'll get in the orange ones. I had a hard time trying to figure out how far apart to plant them all. Jeavons says 9". A lot say give them tons of space because they will spread and root as they hit the ground. I'm thinking for a short season space like here the best is probably a 9" spacing and to put them in a plastic mulch so they can't try to root anymore. Plus the mulch would add heat that we lack here. I hate plastic mulches though. I really do. So I put them in rows about a foot apart and 9" apart in rows. Almost Jeavons spacing. The orange ones have slightly fewer slips, about 2/3s the amount. So they will be spaced farther apart. I'll see if one spacing seems to work better than the other. And I might add one to the pot by my front door. It will have to share with some flowers and some mint. But I love the look of the foliage and even if it doesn't produce well it will be pretty.

That was today, but yesterday I did a little gardening too when I got back from work. I didn't even come inside, but went straight for the garden. I wanted to get the last of the squash planted. The squash I planted earlier is already up, but I didn't have time to plant the second section too. So I planted two each of Early Butternut and Waltham Butternut. I think in fall my color will be orange with all the squash and sweet potatoes planted.

Carrots and Gooseberries

My husband came home yesterday and wondered why I had gone out in the pouring rain. It was the garden of course. He told me that I had put it in black and white on my blog that I would be resting and I wouldn't garden. What can I say? In all the major planting that I've been doing, I forgot to check my carrots. Remember my experiment?

Carrots starting to germinate

One of the ways I was planting carrots was in TP that had been soaked in water and the seed allowed to germinate inside then planted out. I noticed the little green head of a carrot poking up. Whoops. I was supposed to plant when I saw the first hint growth. You know I was supposed to check on them. I didn't. Some of the roots were already over an inch long. So they had to get in the ground right away. It was hard planting in the cold rainy weather. The worst part really was that I was running this strip down the middle of the tomato bed. My arms barely reach in that far. So I was straining to hold myself up and not fall into the middle. But at least they are planted. I hope they survive their neglect.

Today was a beautiful day. In the 60Fs and mostly sunny. My townhouse mate and I were going out together this time to plant. I let her dig the holes for the three gooseberries (Hinnonmaki Red, Invicta, Trixia) from Nourse Farms. OK I still shoved dirt back in and raked a bit, but I was trying not to strain my arm too much. I did OK.

Two of the plants were beautiful. Well the roots were beautiful. Above is just a stick. The last one was pretty sad. They obviously start them in plugs about 1 1/2" x 3". Then they transplant them. Well the plug was obviously root bound and they didn't do anything about it when they transplanted. The roots had grown too and they were starting to strangle the plant. The root system just wasn't very healthy. I carefully unwound the poor kinked roots so they could grow straight again and not be twisted into their neighbors. I hope it works.

Cranberry

Then we went to plant cranberries. We moved half of the piles of pine needles off of the area and into the front where the blueberries are. Both will be mulched with those. Hopefully it will help bring the pH down. The planting on my side went smoothly. The planting on the other side was slower. I had said to mix the peat moss into the soil when they prepared it, but it was just on top. So I had her mix it in before planting and remoisten the soil. The layer of plain peat had just shed all the water from yesterday. It didn't soak it up at all. Peat can be such a pain when it is dry. Mixing it with the soil helps keep it from happening.

While I was out I planted four rhubarb plants. I was going to get some from a friend, but I couldn't resist it at the garden center. The problem with having a garden that is all planned out and all the plants ordered is that you can't just pick things up when you see them. It has been killing me this year. I see something fun and I can't just buy it. Like mints. I saw a whole bunch of mints (I forget where) and I so wanted to buy one, but I have them coming in the mail, so I'll have to wait for them. So far that has been my one spontaneous plant purchase this year. I'll only get more if something dies or I decide to plant something other than what I have under my lights.