The Modern Victory Garden

I brought in the beets and potatoes this week, and the beets, as always, were SUCh a disappoitnment -- I don't get it.  They are in a raised bed, which is tilled spring and fall, cover-cropepd, organic 16-16-16 fertilizer.  But only about 20% of the beets are an actual beet!  the rest, just the red thred below ground.....why???  Why don't beets ever really work for me?  Is it because the bed is 'shared' (with a pumpkin, with tomatoes).  Is it because they weren't adequately thinned early on?  Any ideas at all?  My potatoes, well, i don't know if they are a problem or not.  The potato bed is small, only had about 8 plants this year, at the foot of the corn bed, and they appeared to do well. But that bed is an in-ground bed...and despite the tilling, and the cover crop, and the tilling, upon harvest I discovered that tree roots are once again weaving through the soil....so while I did get some HUGe potatoes, most were very small -- smaller than a fist -- and near the surface. ???  OK, we should have mounded them.  But that's a problem, because I'd have to get a dumptruck of soil or something and leave it off to one side all summer to facilitate mounding!  Sigh.  Incidentally, got about 25# of potatoes from those 8 plants.  Well, we just try to fully utilize what we can grow...I'm happy to do at least that....in good news, have (2) 3-gallon batches of plum wine coming along nicely!  And three gorgeous fairytale pumpkins which slept under blankets last night (the vines were still well off, so I let them stay out for this week), and are 'coming in' tonight!  Since now we're going to get the great "Kitsap Freeze," I imagine I should just clean them up and set them in the garage -- any recommendations?  I won't be able to get around to processing them until a week or two from now.  I was planning on doing some canning (chunks of course, as there is no recommendation from Coop Ext for canning pureed pumpkin) but am very interested in your pumpkin processing recipes, too!  Thanks!

You know Heidi, I find beets far more challenging to grow than most folks would have you believe they should be.   I did better this year and I think it is because I mercilessly thinned them - twice.   I suspicion that is one of the keys to success is alot more room to grow then most of us give them.  

Sorry to hear your potatoes were frustrating as well.   They really do need a bed without competition from tree roots.  Trees are famous for crowding crops and also for stealing nutrients from the soil leaving little for other crops.   Maybe you can find a different bed and try my trenching approach.   It works very well.   You can find info on it in the "How To" info pages link in the menu bar above.  

I battened down the greenhouse tonight too - preparing for the nightly chill to arrive tonight.  

On the pumpkins... just cut them leaving a fair amount of stem still attached to the pumpkin.    Let them sit in the sunshine for a day to cure and let the cut end of the stem cork over.   Then just store them in a cool dark place until you are ready to process them.    Just don't put them on concrete.   I place mine on rubbermaid shelving in our garage.   I process them as I have time to mess with them.    Probably do another one this weekend in fact.   I posted some info on processing pumpkins in the photo gallery under preserving.   There is also a series of photos on how I pressure can winter squash chunks.   The same process is used to pressure can chunks of pumpkin as well.  Hope that helps!

Thank you!  that is reassuring.  Right now, (after one day in sunshine), I have the pumpkins on a blanket on the floor in the 'downstairs' -- it stays under 65 there -- is that ok for short-term?  (less than 3 weeks, say?).  I don't want to put them out again --

That should be fine for short term storage Heidi - but that is too warm for longer term storage.  

I got brave, since it's going to be 'warmer' the next few days, the least ripe one is on the front porch now on a piece of cardboard (and  under eaves).  The other two are on a blanket on the garage floor.

I'm a little unsettled by how much green there is in the pumpkins -- they were quoted (Fairytale) as ripening to 'a deep mahogany', but although they're very large, they are mostly medium to dark green, with yellow 'swaths' flowing through them. ??  I think this weekend I'll cut open the one that looks 'most ripe.'