You can also see where I asked my husband to start staining the fence, because I didn't want anyone walking on my potato patch once the ground was prepared! We'll get around to the rest later this summer...
Potatoes are nightshades (like tomatoes) and have to be rotated. I have ours on a 4 year rotation and I'm delighted to tell you that this year they return to the optimal spot in our garden - one which produced an incredible yield once before. I will gently murder any volunteer tomatoes or potatoes that try to come up elsewhere in the garden, to prevent blight on my new plants. (Late blight overwinters in living tissues in the ground.) I'm also really committed to cutting all the pretty flowers off as soon as they appear, so the plants focus their energy down into my tubers. Hopefully we'll have enough potatoes this year to rejuvenate my seed crop. (Last year's failure means I'm starting from scratch again.)
This energy of new beginnings is much needed, as we lost two of our pretty kitties this past month. Magick passed in January at 18 1/2 years old, and Carolina followed last weekend, which was one week past her 19th birthday. It's been pretty sad and empty feeling, so having some light and hopeful beginnings feels really refreshing. We're down to 4 kitty cats, so we'll be keeping an eye out for the right fluffy one to come join us here at FIVE Cats Farm. ;)
Do you grow potatoes? Tell me about your varieties in the comments!
RIP Magick and Carolina
