I decided to go ahead and plant some potatoes for a fall harvest and to store for winter. I've never grown them before, but seeing as they try to grow all on their own in my cupboard, I figure it can't be that hard.
Red potatoes
White potatoes
They went in the fourth row set I put in last fall. Just straw (or what might actually be hay, grumble) layered about a foot deep on top of grass clippings. All the grass beneath was killed off with everything at the soil almost completely decomposed. The lower layers of straw were extremely moist and gooey with some mushrooms found, and an ant colony. I think this means there wasn't sufficient airflow to get a strong decomposition going.
Pulling back the straw I placed the seed potatoes on the ground and recovered with a couple inches of the wettest straw, not too thick as the potatoes had already sprouted. After the growth breaks through the surface a bit I'll add more straw, repeating this cycle a couple of times. The spuds should all grow up and fill the straw with starchy goodness.
The Deer Defense Grid is also in place. Hard to tell in the photo, I used the old fence to form arches over the first row, capping both ends.
The groundhog can always go under it, and I'll deal with that if it becomes a problem. But for now this should prevent the deer from browsing on the young cabbage and chard.
Still no sign of the spinach or lettuce. I'm thinking I might have to just pull the mulch off and reseed the second row as I did the first. But, it does look like my blueberry bushes made it through winter!
I see super fresh blueberries in my, and quite possible some lucky deer's, future!
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