I am very excited to try planting potatoes this year!  Last week  I ordered my organic “Colleen” early seed potatoes, and some “Sarpo Mira” main crop seed potatoes from The Organic Center in County Leitrim.  They arrived in no time, and I  now have the early spuds sitting in egg cartons for about two weeks while they sprout.  In the meantime, I’ve prepped two areas for potatoes.  The first area I started about two months ago, by laying down newspapers and cardboard.  Just recently, I added compost on top.  (O.K., the “I” here is actually my husband!)   The next step is to throw some topsoil on.  I’m planning that will happen in the next two weeks when the early  potatoes will be ready to be planted.

The second plot is going to go through the same process, just at a quicker pace! I only put the papers and compost down today.  I’m so glad I had enough compost!  It’s really very basic planting – no fancy borders or anything like that.  We live in an area that grows potatoes in many of the surrounding fields, so I am hopeful that we’ll have a good experience with this.

It’s February, and time to think about what I’m going to plant this spring.  Actually,  I started thinking about that before the summer was even over!  Last year was our first time planting vegetables, and we’re still experimenting with what works and doesn’t in our climate and soil.   Planting from seeds can be tricky if you’re not careful!   I spilled an entire packet of 100 very tiny turnip (swede) seeds into our raised bed last year.  And as luck would have it, every single seed took!  So we are going to skip  planting swede this year … and maybe next year, too.    The vegetables that didn’t fare well were broccoli (too many worms), cabbage, and tomatoes (you really need cover here for tomatoes).    What I am excited to plant again this year are zucchini (courgette), beets (beetroot), carrots, garlic, onions, rainbow chard, and squash.  They all thrived in our little garden and were delicious!  I am guilty of probably buying more seeds than I can handle.  I’ve added a few more vegetables that I’m going to try growing: peas, pumpkins, parsnips, and potatoes.  It really is just a coincidence that they all start with “p”!   I ordered my organic seeds today from The Organic Centre, which is in Rossinver, Co. Leitrim.  Their web site is theorganiccentre.ie.  I used their seeds last year and were very happy with them.  I am doing my best to keep our life as chemical free as possible.  The down side of being completely surrounded by fields is that they are sprayed a few times during the year.  I try to cover my plants when that happens, but realistically, I can’t do that completely.  We do our best.

In looking at my pictures, I was reminded that we had two unusual varieties of vegetables. Our “Yellowstone” carrots were, well, yellow!  Tasted delicious, they just weren’t orange.  Our “Golden Detroit” beets were also delicious, tasting exactly like purple beets just without the mess.  I was very happy with both varieties, so I think I’ll stick with them.

Next I need to map out where everything is going.  It’s important to rotate what you plant in your beds every year.  But I’ll leave that for another day.