My little Irish-Portuguese Papa ALWAYS did this and taught me to do the same.

Today I am going to drive into town to buy the Red Pontiac seed-spuds and plant out the Snow peas that I already sprouted.
Then a good cover of leaf mulch and water them in.

If I am not totally wiped out after all the weeding and planting the above, I will plant out my onion sets too.

How about you?
Any of you hold to this old Irish tradition?

~ Erin go Bragh ! ~

You can grow potatoes in any kind of large container, ie an old tire or a wooden box. They don't have to be grown in rows.
You can even use bricks or rocks for a container.

If you have room on your patio or lawn, lay down some black garden fabric and then stack your bricks around it in a circle or square and at least 2 ft deep or deeper. Then follow the directions for filling it which I'll give below.

When the potatoes are finished and harvested, plant beans or some other veggie in the same container. (or annual flowers)

In each container, put in a layer of dirt, then hay or leaves, then the potato seed, then more hay or leaves on them, and then top with more dirt. Cover with more hay or leaves. Water sparingly or else they will just rot.

From every 3-4 lb bag of potato seed, I got a return of over 40 lbs of yummy, buttery New Potatoes. I just harvested the bigger ones and the bushes continued to produce more potatoes for weeks by doing that, until it got hot and the bushes died..

Home grown potatoes are so much tastier than anything you can buy at the grocers. They were my biggest veggie seller when I was selling produce at the farmers market.

Got a little ahead of myself, St. Patrick's Day isn't until 17th so hold that thought till then :).

Annette

It depends upon how many you want to plant. I space my potato seed about 12-18 inches apart. Planting them close like that, the plants roots and tops knit together and hold one another up.
You can space them up to 2 feet apart if you like.

If they are small spuds, I leave them whole. It they are big ones, I quarter them. Just make sure that each seed piece has one or more "eyes".

Plant Marigolds on each row end or every three feet between plants if in a circle. Marigolds are stinky and ward off potato beetles. Their roots are shallow and don't bother the potatoes.
Just sprinkle the marigold seeds where you want them to grow. You can thin them out later once they start to grow.

I often plant one row of potatoes, then one row of bush beans in the garden, alternately. It confuses the potato bugs when they fly over. I seldom get any beetles.

So, if you make the beds 3X5, that would allow for you to plant a row of French marigolds (or bush beans) down the center between two rows of potatoes that are spaced two feet apart (spacing your potato seed 12 inches apart), and then three or four marigold plants spaced across each end.

Does that make sense?

Another Cold Front is moving into the state and it will drop back down into the previous temps...or colder.

It's bizarre! How can you acclimate to crazy weather like this, let alone grow a garden in it???

The flowers are fab too. They started out a two tone pink/crimson and then faded more to a violet/periwinkle. Pic below...

Speaking of that, has anyone ever tried broad beans? I saw an English garden show the other day that featured some lovely crimson flowered broad beans.
CMK

They are beautiful plants, I am looking forward to them.

Christin, I still have a few of my original "Shiraz" seed left but I'm sowing from seed I saved last year as I too am interested in seeing if they come true. How did you like the flavor, I thought they were really good, not having grown any other snow peas other than "Golden Sweet" which I thought were ho hum.

Annette

Although really, I would grow it again just because the flowers were lovely and I got a fair eating pea out of it. It makes up for not having lots of luck with sweet peas, even though the snow peas don't smell nice :-)

I've still got a few 'SP II' seeds (saved) left if you wanted a few to grow for the sake of comparison. LMK..
CMK

My Snow Peas are sprouted, but am not making much head way with clearing my garden of weeds so I can get things planted, darn it!. My legs are so weak and my lower back is killing me.
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mandolls
I have to get my spring veggie crops in NOW if I am going to have any at all. Here in the Southern Plains, it goes from erratic early spring (cold-hot-cold-hot) to a gorgeous blush of Spring so wonderful that you are glad to live here. But quickly, sometimes virtually overnight, it changes to HOTTEST hell.. Fall gardens might be good, except that the weather, as with our springs, is just too unpredictable to bother.. We might enjoy a long autumn of beautiful, pleasant weather, but often as not, just as my crops are looking great, we get a deep freeze or at least a hefty Hoar frost. I have extended some of my crops with covers and bales of hay as barriers, but it is so much work and I just can't cut the mustard any more.
And then, we also have tornadoes - in the spring thru early summer and again in the fall. This is due to the moist Gulf Stream colliding with the drier Arctic Jet Stream over us all the time, but it is worse when the seasons change.. Just as my corn starts to tassel and the tomatoes have grown huge and starting to change colour....SWOOSH!
You just have to garden by faith here. Take it or leave it. That's how it is.

If I had my way, I'd go HOME to San Diego County in Southern California where I can garden nine months out of the year with beautiful tropicals, herbs, cacti (that I wouldn't have to drag inside every fall), and all manner of flowers, fruit, avocados, and citrus trees....and deal with the dense fog, droughts, the wildfires, the newcomers, and the earthquakes that I am accustomed to dealing with. (LOL) I ao miss the mountains and tall redwood trees, and trips to the Ocean, all just a few miles away in any direction. (dreaming ...)
But we have to stay where the work is, so here we are!
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My spine has been disintegrating for the past fifteen years and I have arthritis so bad in other areas that excessive walking is just not going to happen anymore I literally collapse. I have worked too hard all my life and it is so difficult to let up and slack off. I have so many things I still WANT to do and many things I NEED to do, but my body has just had ENOUGH. ((grinning)). So, it is probably a good thing that I live where I do with limited pleasant gardening weather or else I would literally work myself to death!

Still, it is the fact that I keep working that also keeps me going - crazy, but true. I have to get exercise or my joints lock up and I would get atrophy. Sucks, but them's the breaks! So, I deal with the pain and keep going while I can. I look a lot younger than I am, but I sure don't feel like it. But, I do alright. No complaints. It's just the way things are, I reckon.
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It turned out to be another HOT day today - those weather men can't deal with the fact that the typical weather patterns no longer exist, so their forecasts are not always accurate anymore because those old weather patterns are changing...all the time.

Still, it could turn nasty any time and I have to get with it if I am going to get my Spring veggies in the ground:
i.e., cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuces, radishes, carrots,. and onions.

Next month - in April, : then the warm weather crops go into the ground, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, beans, melons, corn, Herbs and etc.

~Annie
...digging in the Red Dirt of Central Oklahoma and dreaming of retiring back home near the coast.....where we will probably fall off into the ocean when the Big One HITS. :)
I'm IRISH! Can't win for losing...

(p.s - mandolls I didn't mean to sound like I was biting your head off...just 'splainin' the dilemma that we in the Southern Plains have to deal with. The thing is, just be happy with what you have and where you live. That's all any of can do, right? As you said, when the weather is right where you live, you can get out there and get after it! And we will be JEALOUS of your gardens..)

I've got some hot peppers an eggplant started under by grow light. Threw some kale seed out a few days ago.

LOL. That's why you pay no mind to the weathermen but lean yourself out a window. If you come back in wet you know it's raining, if there are snowflakes on your lashes it must be snowing. :-)

I'm so sorry to hear about your physical problems dear Annie. :-(
CMK

Not sure what taste I could compare with Broad Beans. They taste like a bean, only buttery (almost). No sure. They are not waxy, but buttery. They have more flavor, but none of the bitter after taste that you get with regular green beans. No strings or tough skin.
They are big and wide and flat-ish. (hence their name)
Wish I could tell you something better than that. I'm just at a loss for describing the taste.

My red bells are emerging. Yeah! Still have more varieties of peppers to start. My favorite hot peppers, besides Jalapenos, are ' Mexibells' (a squatty little HOT bell pepper) and 'Hatch' peppers (from Hatch, NM) . The Hatch peppers have the best flavor of all my hot peppers and prolific. Can't do without them every year!.

I potted up my one (1) 'Sungold' grape Tomato today, in a 2-gallong pot. It will have to stay in the greenhouse awhile longer yet. Just one of those tomatoes will be enough for us. They are very prolific producers. Very sweet and yummy for snacking. and in salads. Great for making Fruit Salsas too because of their sweetness. Loaded with Vitamin C.

Christin,
You needn't feel sorry for my infirmities - they made me discover more about myself - made me try harder; learn how to do things that I wouldn't have learned how to do otherwise. Everything has it's reason and a purpose. It is just our challenge to discover what they are and what we can do with what we have been given in this life. It is hard, of course, and I gripe about them, you bet, and I even hate them sometimes, and resent the darned restrictions in doing what I love to do, yes, of course I do! BUT...I do find a way to accomplish things. I do! If not, I change my plans, alter my course, but keep going. That's what's important. Isn't it? Never EVER give up!
But thank you for caring Hun. ((HUGS))

~Annie

I dont miss the killer summers though.

A raccoon paid my garden a visit early Friday morn.
He went fishing and caught one of my goldfish.
Blast it all!

So this morning at dawn, I armed myself with my pellet/BB gun and went out in my jammies to see if he was back for the other one he didn't get!

No sign of him this morning, but I will be on the hunt every morning.

He will be after my Hens next.

I only pumped the gun a few times. It won't kill him - just enough pressure to pepper his butt and make run him off.

Go find your breakfast elsewhere you rascal!

DH bought live trap and caught one and took it off in the woods and release it. He tried trapping the next one up, but we have a silly black cat that goes into the trap by the time it is set. Over and over again.

I did find one good thing about raccoons. They went into my garden, and dug up vole tunnels and ate voles. I would be willing to feed them if they would keep that up. I have lost quite a few roses and several daylilies to the voles, my number one garden enemy.

kay

The BB's don't penetrate their thick fur if you only pump the gun a few times - three is enough. When I shoot it, it makes a loud pop, and the BB's just hit their thick fur, stinging at most, but never penetrating their skin. I am careful not to shoot their heads - I don't want to put out an eye.

Raccoons are very smart. They also know how to unhook latches on our screen doors and chicken pens. Their little hands, so much like human hands, are very inept at using mechanical things, levers, and such. They can turn door knobs and figure out how to get through almost any barrier, even electrical ones. Oh yes, they can! Super smart.

I put a piece of PVC pipe in the fish pond for the fish to hide inside when Raccoons come fishing. I've lost hundreds of my fish to the rascally rascals- Koi, Shubunkins, Angel Koi and goldfish, even two huge Ghost Koi....all gone, one or two at a time. I figured the PVC pipe would at least give the smaller fish a place to hide.. I used a piece long enough that the Raccoons cannot reach very far into it and grab the fish. They are afraid of getting caught in traps so are wary of the pipe. So, I was surprised to find one fish missing.

I went out two days later and fed the surviving fish. It's been sunny and lovely. Well, guess what? The other fish was in there swimming with her friend. She was just still hiding inside the pipe! She finally came out and was swimming around pretty as you please. So, the pipe worked! Yeah! I just have two surviving fish now - they were mixed with the Shubunkins, so some had black and other colours.. I had 6 adults and four babies in there last summer. Down to the two all-orange goldfish.

Raccoons generally make their raids just before dawn, unless they are very, very hungry. They just rip through the ponds, tearing up all my water plants, turning pots upside down and going ape chasing the fish with their little hands.

If my coonhound hears them out side, I let her out to chase them off. Of course, she may send them on a merry chase through all my flowers and veggies and do more damage than the raccoons! Eventually, she will tree them and sit down below bellowing up at them...for hours. If she is still on the property and in the yard, I go out with the leash and flashlight and DRAG her back to the house, but she doesn't come willingly. She reacts like a wild stallion, rearing up on her hind legs and kicking, twisting her body and throwing her head about trying to free herself from the leash! I calmly keep telling her that she did good, and finally, when she finally calms down, pleased with herself for having done her job, she happily goes into the house with me, By that time, I am completely exhausted! You have to talk calmly to hound dogs, particularly certain breeds, like mine - they will NOT listen to you if you use a harsh tone or yell

The terrified raccoon eventually slides down out of the tree, and tears off into the nearby woods...until the next time.

Fun on the farm! Hardly a night goes by that some sort of drama isn't played out.

Saw a squirrel here yesterday for the first time since 1965, back then we had the small native red squirrels in the park across the street but they disappeared not to be seen again. The squirrel we saw yesterday was an eastern grey, some fool introduced to the south end of the island and now they have migrated up island. Cute to look at but so destructive, we also have bull frogs, another none native that some idiot introduced here, when will people ever learn.

Annette