I finally put in some time in the garden on this fine afternoon, trimming back the yellow-flowered sedum that was growing over the front walk. Before I heaped all the clippings onto the compost pile, I decided I had better see if I could dig up any of the potatoes that had volunteered themselves in said pile. It was hard to tell where the plants were, since the whole patch is a tangle of tomatoes (many volunteers, in addition to four that I planted) and bittersweet nightshade in addition to the potato plants. In other words, lots of nightshade leaves! I pulled up what I thought was a potato plant and scrabbled around a bit, but found nothing till I went and got a spade, and of course my first attempt to dig into the soil split a little potato in two.
In the end, this was my haul:
I don’t know if those green tomatoes will ripen, but since I accidentally uprooted their plant, I picked them and will give them a shot indoors.
Eventually I remembered that I had planted some potatoes at the opposite corner of the vegetable patch, and went to see what I could find there. The sage is exuberant, the two tomato plants have several green tomatoes apiece, and the rest of the ground is covered with clover and catnip where it isn’t full of not-so-dwarf marigolds. I turned over the soil in several places, but all I came up with in the way of spuds was one very tiny potato about the size of my smallest fingernail, and another slightly larger one that was mostly green.
I may have some small talent, skill, or simply luck with composting, but I’m not much of a gardener, really. I’d look more successful if I just tossed my scraps into the garden and then claimed to be cultivating whatever comes up and blooms (and fruits).
Anyway, that’s the only photo I took today. But there were extras for the last two Six on Saturday posts (hosted by The Propagator!), so it’ll average out.
Dame Eleanor Hull 