Redbuds and Spuds

In the side yard just to the west of the house is a tree that up to last week, looked barren and dead.  It's a redbud tree.  It is another tree that we got for free from the Arbor Day Foundation shortly after we moved into our house.  With this tree, we were able to dig it up and transplant it in the side yard in the perfect spot.  There is a sliver of openness between the pecan trees and the live oak trees.  The redbud is able to get some sunshine that the live oak and the pecan tree benevolently shares.  As a result, the redbud has flourished and grown.  

The following two photos illustrate the reason for the name of the tree.  In springtime, even though the tree has no leaves, no green growth, and no signs of life at all, the tree erupts with hundreds or thousands of tiny flowers that line the branches - a beautiful announcement of spring.  Ain't it pretty?

Here is an up-close photo.  The tiny flowers have no discernable fragrance, but they are a feast for the eyes, for sure.  In a few short weeks, the buds/blooms will be gone and big, heart-shaped leaves will adorn the tree.

Just south and west of the redbud tree is a 45 foot double row garden plot that we rotate vegetables into.  We created this bed when we ran out of room in our garden out back.  Now that our 'birds' have flown the nest, we should rethink this and transition this patch back to grass, BUT we've worked so hard to amend organic matter, biochar, compost, chicken litter, and cow manure into, I hate to waste all that good stuff on grass.

The ground in this patch was compacted, hard, poor, and mostly clay when we first turned it over with a shovel.  Now it is easily-worked and fertile.  Last year we had zinnias growing here, along with numerous types of squash.  This spring I planted two double rows of Lasoda Irish potatoes in this bed.  The potatoes are off to a great start.  The plants catapult from the dark earth and up into the sunshine, healthy as ever.

The potatoes are mostly the same size, but a few are taller than others.  Some lag behind, but they'll catch up.

The encouraging thing about the potato crop is that EVERY SINGLE seed potato planted has grown.  There are no gaps to fill.  Pretty soon the plants will shade out and the bed will be nothing but a 45 foot double row of green.  Although the green leaves of the potato plant are nice to look at, the real magic is occurring beneath the soil where tiny potatoes will start to grow.  That one chunk of seed potato will reproduce itself, multiplying into many potatoes from each plant.  They'll be ready to dig in May.  We like to eat the small, new potatoes cooked in butter with fresh green beans.  Mmmm... What a great combination!

One thing I did today is I mowed several sections of the yard.  I closed the outlet from the mower and mulched all the grass, clover, and leaves.  The mower chops them up into small pieces.  Then I raked it all up and nestled it around the potato plants.  The leaf mulch serves several purposes.  First, it crowds out any opportunity for weed growth that might compete with the potatoes.  Next, over the season the leaf mulch deteriorates, becoming a home for earthworms and eventually part of the soil, adding fertility and minerals back into the soil.

Redbuds and spuds in the side yard - a nice treat.  One for the eyes, the other for the stomach.

All in Favor Say "Aye" (Or Eye!)

Well, we finally got the potatoes in the ground this past Saturday!  Almost two full weeks late as we normally shoot for Valentine's Day planting.  Because of the crazy cold snap we had, it put a damper on planting.  The gentleman who brings us round bales of hay had jumped the gun on potato planting and the freeze killed every single one of his plants.  They were four inches tall when the freeze took its toll.  He has a great attitude and says he'll just replant.

After cutting our seed potatoes, we put them in the warmest room of the house - a coat closet, and let the warmth go to work.  The eyes began to grow and by this weekend, they were ready to put into the ground.  We plant red "Irish Potatoes" - actually a variety called Lasoda.  We like 'em.

We purchased 6 pounds of seed potatoes and cut them into chunks for planting several weeks prior to the plant date.  We aim for one eye per chunk, but often miss.  You can see on the potato chunk below there is a nice, healthy eye at the 6 o'clock position and another one popping out at about the 2 o'clock position.  I counted the number of potato pieces and came up with 87 that we'll plant.  They all have good eyes.  

Eighty seven potato plants should yield a nice crop, but we've learned not to count our chickens before they hatch.  I had my eyes on some blue potatoes at Tractor Supply.  I've never grown them.  But after measuring out the amount of potatoes and the space upon which I had to plant, I was out of room.  No blue potatoes this year.  Maybe next year.  I am a patriotic guy.  It would be fun to grow red, white and blue potatoes, wouldn't it?

We have a forty-five foot bed in the side yard.  It started out as a hardpan, clay, mostly unproductive soil, but we've amended it with lots of organic matter - leaves and compost and most recently, wood chips.  Over time the wood chips decompose and make the soil easily workable with a hoe.  The soil that once was a yellowish-white color is now dark brown and rich.  I used a rock rake to rake the wood chips off the row.  Then I hoed up two forty-five foot rows about a foot and a half apart.

I'm adding another amendment to the soil - Bio Char.  I made bio char by burning branches and sticks for a while until they are covered with grey ash.  Then I stop the burning process by spraying them down with a water hose.  I scooped the 'charcoal' up into a big blue tub.  If you would look at the resulting charcoal with a microscope, you would see a multitude of tiny holes.  If you'd amend this into the soil at this point, it would lock in and steal nitrogen from the soil and hurt your plants.  To combat this, we inoculate the charcoal with beneficial bacteria.  We mix in a bunch of cow manure and let it compost for a year.  The bacteria moves into the holes in the biochar like little beneficial bacteria hotels or AirBnB.  Fully inoculated, you can now put into your soil and the plants will thrive from the biochar.  That's the good stuff in the white bucket below.

I try to plant the potatoes about 3 inches deep with a handful of biochar in each hole.  The eyes face upward.  Planting crops and the anticipation of seeing the green shoots pop out of the ground is always an exciting time of year.

Finally, I used my rock rake to cover the potatoes with a smooth layer of soil.  What a nice seed bed it made.

If the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, in a few months we'll have fresh potatoes and will enjoy homemade potato salad, crash hot potatoes, and baby red potatoes cooked with fresh picked green beans laden with butter.  Lookin' forward to all of it!