The Modern Victory Garden

Friday gave us some periodic sunshine and the high temperature rose up close to our normal levels for this time of year.   It was a brief break in the series of storm systems that have been pummeling us for weeks on end.   In fact, even though we got some sun on Friday there was still a fair amount of clouds present and so our region continues on its long streak of technically non-sunny days.   It has been 41 days since our area last had what qualifies as an official sunny day, which is defined as 30% or less cloud cover through the day.   The last day that qualified was February 25, which happened to occur at the same time that we had a deep arctic freeze hit our area (winter’s last hurrah!).   Unfortunately, the next week or so forecast does not give any hope that we will break this current non-sunny streak.     Recognizing this, I took advantage of this little break in the weather and took Friday off from work so that I could get the potato patch planted up on Friday and Saturday before the rains returned on Sunday.                    

Last year I used the John Jeavon’s method of planting potatoes, which essentially has you plant potatoes as you double dig a garden bed.   The seed potatoes are placed 9 inches apart on the loosened soil at the bottom of the trenches created.   I made a potato planting board last year that is 4 feet long and has marks on it to help denote where to put the potatoes.  The planting board makes a good standing board for the digging process as well, keeping the soil from becoming deeply compacted while I work my way down the bed double digging.   The potatoes end up being buried about 9 inches or more deep and require no further hilling throughout the growing season.   They have loose amended soil above them, which provides a great growing medium for the tubers to develop.   The seed potatoes are planted 9 inches apart and with less than 12 inches between rows/trenches - so the spuds are densely planted making optimal use of the growing bed.   It produced really good yields for me last year and I ended up with a garden bed that was refreshed by the double dig.   

For 2011, I will once again be using the John Jeavon's method.   This year’s bed is right next to last year’s bed and is longer in length by an additional 8 feet – measuring 4’X40’.   At first I was going to do the entire bed in potatoes but after thinking about it more, I determined to keep the potato patch at the same size as last year ( 4’X32’ ) and just use the remaining two 4’X4’ sections for other crops.   Our harvest from the 2010 patch has been just about perfect for us in that we are still using the stored potatoes but should be done with them about the time they start getting too shriveled and sprouted to be usable.   We have been eating on them since last fall and it has been an abundant supply.   Growing a larger amount would likely just result in waste as I do not think we could eat any more then we have been doing.                                      

I prepared the bed by placing a layer of compost and broadcasting a layer of bone meal over the entire surface area.     I then began the double dig process by removing the soil from the first trench and placing it into a wheelbarrow.     This soil is used at the very end to fill in the final trench.     To do the digging you use a good garden spade and stand on a board to distribute your weight – to avoid overly compacting the soil in the bed as you work.   A garden fork is then used to dig into the bottom of the trench and loosen the soil, similar to the process you use when using a broad fork to aerate a bed.   Because these beds have been previously double dug (almost five years ago now!) I skipped adding any amendments in the trench bottom before loosening the soil.  The intent is not to turn over the soil at the bottom of the trench but to loosen and aerate it.   The seed potatoes are then laid out in the bottom of the trench and you begin the process all over with the next trench, placing the soil dug from the next trench into the first one dug to fill it.   You repeat this process all the way to the end of the planting area.                              

I broke this job up into two days (Friday and Saturday) and took lots of breaks as I was working on it.   Double digging is always hard work and this was a very large bed.   Pacing myself with this kind of work avoids overstraining my back.   I must have done it right because as of Sunday I am feeling just fine and am none the worse for wear.                          

The remaining 4’X8’ section of the potato patch bed was aerated with a broadfork and cultivated with a hoe to mix the amendments into the top few inches of soil and then raked smooth.    I then direct seeded a 4’X4’ section in carrots and another 4’X4’ section in beets.   I used my 4-inch planting jig to do those two plantings.   I could have used a smaller spaced jig for the carrots but opted to give these carrots more room than I usually do.         

Saturday was definitely more gloomy and cloudy than Friday but it stayed dry the entire day and I got done what I set out to do for the day.   The older section of garden is now largely planted up.            

I still have the vertical grow bed and the retaining wall bed to plant up, but otherwise this section of the garden is planted for the start of the growing season.   The brief bit of sunshine on Friday woke the pea patch up.   They had germinated but had stalled out for quite a few days due to the colder than normal temperatures but the sunshine and little bit of warmer temperatures on Friday spurred them into emerging fully.   The bed has a definite five o’clock shadow of green sprouts now.                        

I moved most of the tomato plants out to the greenhouse this weekend to begin their gradual hardening off process.   Later this week, I will begin moving them outside for periods of time and gradually increase the amount of time they spend out of doors.   They will be ready to go into the ground (with protective cover) around the 23rd of April or later.                     

I am glad to get the potato patch in for the season. It’s one of the bigger planting chores of the year but vital to our annual food supply.                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener