Fenton Friday: Potato Takeover

You know how you always THINK you dug out every last little potato from a planting bed? Well, you always miss a few. (See pic at right.) In the case of the bed that I cleared out and planted the Radish 'Cherry Belle' seeds, I clearly missed more than a few! The potatoes have not only resprouted but they are starting to take over the spot that the radishes are in and then some. I suppose it is all the mild weather we have been having and that is the only spot I've been watering (other than the Brassicas bed). I think the potatoes think it is spring already!

Meanwhile, the Radish 'Round Black Spanish' and the Carrot seeds we planted are still not up.

This week, I pulled out the Cotton plants to dry them indoors as save their seeds.

The Dahlias, Cosmos, and Zinnias are still pumping out tons of flowers. Waiting for a frost to hit them and knock them back before I pull them out. That also goes for cutting back the Asparagus and Blackberry canes.

We've held off on planting Garlic, hoping to do so next week.

What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Potatoes Planted

This week, I finally got the potatoes planted. They are Dark Red Norland seed potatoes that I got from Valley View Farms in March. I had this potato grow bag (see photo at right) that was given to me a few years ago sitting around and thought I'd finally use it to test our grow potatoes in it. There is a flat on one side near the bottom that is attached with velcro, so you can open it and harvest the potatoes then reclose it and let them keep growing. I'll be eager to see if this will be easier than digging and hilling them as you normally would when growing potatoes.

In other updates from the garden, the radishes and carrots seedlings are up and thriving -- so much so that we had to thin them out. 

The lettuce greens, cilantro, arugula, and pea seedlings are now all up too. We did a bit of watering and weeding around those.

The onions, dill, parsley, and broccoli plants we put in a few weeks ago are all doing fine. The thornless blackberry bushes are loaded with white flowers. The garlic we planted last fall is growing rather large for this time of year -- fingers crossed for big bulbs when we harvest them this summer!

I harvested a few more asparagus spears, but the additional ones I planted last fall have not shown up yet. I'll still hold out hope for those.

We also decorated and refreshed our community bulletin board as it was looking really faded. (That sun is a powerful thing!) I added pockets with free seeds to give away -- they are basil, marigolds, and zinnias.

 What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Potato Harvest

A quick update on the cutting garden. We had our first bloom today of the Cornflower 'Velvet Dawn', and there are several buds appearing on the Cosmos 'Apricotta'. The Zinnia 'Mazurkia' keeps pumping out gorgeous flowers with lots of variations in colors and patterning. The Celosia and Dahlia are also starting to flower well. However, the Scabiosa 'Black Knight' may never bloom I fear. The plants are towards the path-side of the cutting garden so they get some damage and exposure from folks walking by and they also get overshadowed by the taller Zinnias. I won't give up on them entirely, but not expecting much from them. Still, a pretty good showing for flowers planted by seed just two months ago (around June 15).

I dug the potatoes that I had planted at the end of March. I intended to enter them into the county fair this weekend or I would have left them in the ground a bit longer. It looks like I may miss the fair entry period though due to illness. In any case, there were about 50 potatoes and most were about the size of a chicken egg. The variety is 'Yukon Gold', which I think are normally larger in size. I did not fertilize them and as I said, I pulled them a bit early, still I'm pretty happy with the results.

In the rest of the plot, the Tomatoes are developing, Peppers are turning from green to gold, and the Zucchini keep coming. The Beans and the Sweet Potato vines are growing rampantly, so I'm constantly wrapping those around the nearby trellis and I'm also always pulling up sections of the invasive Morning Glory vine that will just NOT give up invading the plot. 

One nice surprise today was harvesting a handful of ripe Blackberries. I was sure the birds would devour those later berries before I could pick them! 

How is your garden plot growing this week?

 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 12th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.)  See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Potatoes Popping

We were mostly skipped by the rains this weekend, so are still very dry. Thankfully the cistern has been filled so hand-watering is a lot easier now.

The plant is humming along much the same as last week, the only real difference is that the 'Yukon Gold' potato plants have popped out of their mound and are a bright green color (see above image) -- they look a lot different than the dark, almost-burgundy leaves of other potato varieties that I've grown.

While at the Leesburg Flower and Garden Fest last weekend, I bought some new asparagus starts ('Martha Washington' from Harvesting-History) to re-do that bed entirely as it is a weedy mess and the asparagus harvests I get right now are rather paltry. I'll also have to pull out the strawberries and yarrow that are interplanted there and find better spots for them. I hope to stay better on top of that bed in the future and not let it get quite so wild.

What are you growing in your edible garden this season?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 12th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Potato Harvest

This was my potato harvest from our plot today. Doesn't it look huge? Well, the tricky thing is the larger potatoes you see here are about the size of my thumb, and the smaller ones are hardly even bite-sized. Still, I plan to enter them in the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair tomorrow along with several other items we grew in our plot - tomatoes, peppers, zinnias, and garlic. I'm also thinking of maybe entering the carrots -- I have to check on how those are looking in my veggie crisper drawer before I decide.

There are a bunch of other things I'd like to enter, but the timing is just off. The Celosia flowers would have done well. Alas, they are pretty puny right now and will likely look great in 2-3 weeks. Then there are the blackberries. I have a few ripe now, but not the the whole pint required for entry. I wish I could enter some of the big beautiful berries that I froze in June! 

Timing is everything in the garden. Isn't that always the way though? 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: One Potato, Two Potato

 

This week I dug up the few Potato plants I had planted. It was not a huge harvest -- enough for a meal for two (or one hungry gardener).

In that space I will sow a few rows of Radishes and Carrots after this weekend's rains are done.

We had an early frost scare earlier in the week and the edges of some of the Basil plants look like they got a bit zapped, but overall they are fine so I plan to pull them in a week or so and make a BIG batch of pesto to be able to freeze a bunch for this winter.

The rows of Lettuce are growing well as are the Broccoli seedlings -- both are under a covercloth and thank goodness for that as we definitely have a rat problem at the community garden now. There are rat bait traps placed all around the perimeter and one dead rat has been laying on the sidewalk outside our side gate. I am refusing to clean him up as I took care of the last two animal carcasses at our garden. It is someone else's turn this time. 

I blame increase in rats on a couple things, mostly that COVID caused the streets to be emptier and several of the local restaurants to be closed, giving the rodents both motive and opportunity to move in. Hoping the hawks an owls I have seen around our neighborhood catch up with them soon.

In more pleasant news, I harvested more Okra and Tomatoes this week. We are having our harvest gathering for the local soup kitchen this Sunday and my plan is to pull up the tomato vines and pull anything ripe or green on them to share with that collection. I expect to have a good amount as they are still producing very well.

What are you harvesting in your garden this week? Any rodent reduction tips?

 About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Potato Surprise

We had a frost scare earlier this week, but we made it through unscathed. A good thing too, as I was so busy getting the October issue of Washington Gardener Magazine out that I took no precautions. Zero. Zilch. At that point, I didn't care what lived or died. I was ready to sack the whole plot and start all over, if need be. Have you ever gotten to that point in the season?

Well, I got over it. Because the weather actually warmed up, I went out and put a row cover on the Broccoli seedlings and I cut down all the Cotton plants and harvested the heads to make into a wreath. (I'll share the wreath results once I finish it.) I then planted 16 cloves off Garlic.

With the interns, we pulled out the last of the 'Roxanne' and 'French Breakfast' Radishes and put in seeds for 'Cherry Belle' in their place.

While I was digging the spot for the Garlic, I turned up one Potato (pictured here). That was a surprise as I did not plant any this year, but I had in previous years. Potatoes are the plant that just keeps on giving -- no matter how deep I dig and how well we think we sift the soil, you always miss something. In this case, it is a welcome discovery. One small potato won't make much of a meal, but I can add it in with something else and happily eat it knowing there is likely more next year where this one came from... 

How is your edible garden growing this week?

Sunday Savory: Hasselback Potatoes with Garlic Butter

Guest post by Shelby Smith

Want a buttery side dish that’s both crispy and not the same-old baked potato? Hasselback potatoes are an interesting spin on both. This dish is the best parts of both and is smothered in flavor. Any kinds of potatoes, dug fresh from the garden or store bought, can be used to make this recipe.

Ingredients

• Russet potatoes. One per person depending on the size.
• 4 tbsp. of butter or margarine.
• 3 gloves of garlic.
• Salt and pepper.
• ¼ cup of mozzarella cheese.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Wash all the potatoes and dry with a paper towel.
3. On medium heat melt the butter and crushed garlic in a small pot to make your own garlic butter. Don’t let the garlic brown.
4. With a sharp knife cut ¼ inch slices side-by-side, but only cut ¾ the way through the potato. Don’t cut all the way through. (Cut the slices thinner for crispy chips).
5. In a 2 inch deep baking pan line all the potatoes side-by-side and season the inside and outside with salt and pepper.
6. Drizzle the garlic butter on the inside and outside of the potato generously.
7. Bake in the oven for 55 minutes, until the slices are crispy and top and the potato is cooked through.
8. In the last 5 minutes of cooking you can sprinkle the cheese on the top and melt it.
9. Keep warm until ready to serve.

This side dish can be served with anything and you can season it any way you like. You can sprinkle the top with any type of cheese as well as bacon to add a little bit more flavor. You can even try this recipe with sweet potatoes and top with marshmallows.

"Savory Sunday" is a new weekly blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

Shelby Smith is a senior double major in multi-platform journalism and film studies at the University of Maryland College Park. She was a sports copy-editor for a campus publication called Unwind Magazine and a writer at The Campus Current newspaper at Anne Arundel Community College. 

Fenton Friday: Dig Dug Dag!

I set out today in the noon-time heat to dig up what I thought would be a handful of potatoes. These are the German Butterballs that I planted in Spring 2014 and then never bothered to dig up last year. They sent out new foliage this spring and that had died back a few weeks ago, so I figured it was time to see what was underneath the small mound of soil. I put my garden fork in and was surprised to see how many potatoes I uncovered -- lots of golden yellow orbs -- some big, some tiny. Then I dug in again and again. I put them all in a bucket and brought them home to weigh them -- 7 pounds total. Not too shabby for basically zero work on my part!

Also happening in my plot (aside from the ongoing cherry tomato explosion) is the first Okra harvest -- all two of them. I only put three plants so only expect to get a few at a time. This first harvest now kicks off what I call the keep-up-with-Okra time of year in the garden, which is simply to make sure to get over to my plot at least for a few minutes every day to pluck off the newest tender Okra before it gets too big and woody to handle. (Hey, get your minds out of the gutter!)

So how is your edible garden growing this week?

About Fenton Friday:
Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 4th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.)