Fiacré's spade: Planting potatoes

I’m pleased to report that the bare root maidenhair fern that I planted back by the creek has finally sprouted and looks good.

Maidenhair fern sprout

Even though summer break has started, I was at work all day Monday. First, I made an appearance at the groundbreaking of MCC’s new and sorely needed Science Center. I worked on updating course materials for a newer edition of the text book until it was time to make another appearance at a staff meeting to talk about the new Science Center. Tuesday was taken up by a doctor’s appointment in Elgin in the middle of the afternoon. I had lunch with Jane, her brother, and his wife. Jane is recovering nicely from knee replacement surgery; Dave and Mary are staying with her until she can do everything by herself.

Thus, it was not until Wednesday that I got to the garden. Hilda has been concerned about the tomatoes she started in the greenhouse. She started them at the same time she always does, but because we had a warmer spring, they grew much faster. They needed to get into the ground. We worked all morning to make a grid of landscape cloth in which to plant the tomatoes. We couldn’t go ahead with the planting because the forecast was for 50 mph winds and severe storms Wednesday night.

Tomato grid

What else could we do? We could plant potatoes! Being completely underground, they could not possibly be harmed by the wind. I asked Terry at lunch if he would be available to help us. Traditionally, he has dug the holes while Hilda cut the potatoes, and I planted them. He said he was too tired, and had too much to do.

“That’s fine,” I said, “I can dig the holes.”

After lunch, Hilda and I got started. I had half a row of holes dug when Terry showed up. “Planting potatoes is more fun that what I was going to do,” he explained.

I put potatoes in the holes and pushed the dirt on top.

Seed potatoes in the holes

When Hilda was done cutting the seed potatoes, she took over placing the potatoes in the holes.

Terry digs while Hilda puts seed potatoes in the holes

We put a row of landscape cloth down between rows and marked the hills as we went along. We don’t need the markers until we harvest because by that time the plants have died back and nearly disappeared. Over the years, however, I have learned that if I don’t do it right off, it doesn’t get done.

Potatoes planted and marked

We did have a truly terrible storm Wednesday night about 10:30. The lightning was furious. The power went off, then on, then off, then on. We found out the next day that a tornado had just missed us to the south east. Mom and Dad probably should have come to the basement.

It was so hot on Wednesday that I thought surely I could put my wool socks away. I got them back out Friday morning. Thursday and Friday were both crappy days for gardening. I slogged away on Unit 1 Thursday and went back to Elgin to visit Jane, et al., and do my grocery shopping. Hilda passed the time making cream of asparagus soup base to freeze. In the warm weather, the asparagus came on like gangbusters. We don’t care for plain frozen asparagus because it gets slimy. Soup, however, would be just fine. We can thaw it and add the cream just before serving.

Before I left the house Friday, I asked Hilda if she needed anything. “If you are going to eat the soup right away, you’ll need cream.”

Meijer had steaks on sale, which was my plan for supper, but there was always Saturday night for soup. “How much should I get?” I asked. “A cup? Two? A quart?”

“You can get some extra,” Hilda replied.

“There’s always chocolate pudding,” I said. We agreed that I should get a quart.

As it turned out, Meijer was sold out of steaks. Good thing I had a backup plan. When I got home with the quart of cream, I asked Hilda how much cream I need to add to a quart of asparagus soup.

“A quarter cup.”

“Is that ALL?”

“That’s what the recipe says.”

So on Saturday, when it was still too wet and cold to garden, I had to make a chocolate cream pie to use up three of the four cups of heavy cream (2 in the pudding and one whipped on top). I made my signature graham cracker and macadamia nut crust.

Chocolate cream pie with graham cracker/macadamia nut crust

Saturday afternoon, the hens decided to roost in one of the apple trees, We'd seen the occasional chicken in an apple tree, but they were having a party! Here's a picture of four of them.

Four hens in an apple tree

We saw as many as six. "Why are they all up in the tree today?" I wondered out loud.

"Because the ground is too damned wet," Terry suggested, "Plus, they are just like monkeys--monkey see, monkey do. One goes up there, and they all follow."

In spite of the cold, rain, and high winds on Friday, the first hummingbird showed up at the feeder. I was surprised it was a female. The males usually come back first to stake out their territories.