This is my crop of potatoes for 2021, harvested July 14. They’re nice-looking and they’ve been delicious, so I can’t call it a disappointing harvest entirely. But I would have liked more of them! This was my first try at growing potatoes in straw, a technique I’d heard good things about. I’ll probably try it again, but I’ll adjust my approach.
Continue readingContainer gardening is wildly popular these days. Type “grow potatoes in containers” and your search engine will return over 7 million web pages. Six years ago, Sherrill Munn, a UME Master Gardener in Calvert Co., developed a fun and challenging youth gardening program he named Project Spudnik. It was designed to encourage a love of gardening, teach environmental stewardship, and raise fresh produce for people in need. The project is a partnership between the All Saints Episcopal and Broadview Baptist Church Youth Groups and Calvert County Master Gardeners and is open to all youth in the county.
Project Spudnik is a mash-up of the movie “The Martian” and Sputnik, the first satellite in space. The movie depicts an astronaut stranded on Mars who must survive until a rescue can be attempted. To do so, he had to raise potatoes that had been taken to Mars as an experiment. Participants watch the movie and are then challenged to raise potatoes in grow bags. With Master Gardener guidance they make their own soil, as did the astronaut in the movie. If the teens are successful, they survive on Mars, if not they perished on Mars.
In addition to potatoes, they plant and harvest tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peppers, eggplant, carrots, blueberries, cabbages, various greens, and flowers in approximately 100 fabric grow bags, ranging in size from 10-20 gallons. Youth learn how to use organic fertilizers and how to prevent nutrient runoff and ground and water pollution. They also learn about integrated pest management- how to prevent and manage pest and plant problems with the least environmental impact possible. Finally, they learn how to responsibly use water in gardening.
A pollinator garden was added last year as well as a drip irrigation system that helped double the yield of produce. Over 460 pounds of produce was donated to area food banks in 2019! The drip system uses water more efficiently, reducing waste and preventing runoff. There are 2020 plans to create a children’s garden, buy a shed and composter, and replace a decorative garden arch that was toppled in a 2019 storm.
Sherrill summed up the project’s value:
“At a time when too much learning is done via boring worksheets and interactions happen on social media, it is important to encourage kids to get their hands dirty with a project with tangible results. Further, gardening can teach important lessons in nutrition, biology, mathematics, social studies and geography.
The garden also teaches youth responsibility and leadership skills as they learn to take charge of the garden and their own grow bags. They will make the decisions on their bag’s soil composition, when to water, when and how much fertilizer to use and what to do if their plants are attacked by pests. If the garden produces food, it will be because of the youths’ hard work.
In addition to the benefits enjoyed by the youth participants, the hungry of Calvert County will benefit from receiving fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.”
Project Spudnik was recognized by the Governor’s Office of Service and Volunteerism as a 2019 “Honor Row” recipient. Youth and parent chaperones received tickets to a Raven’s game, received an award from the Governor’s office, and were featured on the jumbo-tron.
Regarding potato yields, Sherrill notes that “The bags vary in the amount of potatoes depending on how vigilant the youngster responsible for it is. They average around 3 lbs. We plant 4 seed potatoes or seed pieces per bag. Recommendations for the size of bag we use is to plant 3 to 5 seed potatoes. Larger bags would, of course, produce more potatoes. I use larger bags at home and produce 5 to 6 lbs. on average per bag.”
Sherrill’s Recipe for Container Mix (fills 8 ten-gallon fabric bags)
By Jon Traunfeld, Director, Home & Garden Information Center. Read more by Jon.
Many thanks to Sherrill Munn for sharing the story and photos.
A Master Gardener friend who recently traveled to the UK brought me back a packet of seeds. Specifically, ‘Gowrie’ rutabaga seeds from a company called Mr. Fothergill’s.
Except because these are British seeds, they’re not called rutabaga, they’re called swede. The packet does include the botanical name of the plant (Brassica napus napobrassica) so if you’d never heard of swedes and didn’t recognize the picture, you could look them up – I hope all our American packets of rutabaga seeds do the same!
This got me thinking about vegetable names that separate us by a common language, or divide us by different ones, or in general confuse us. I’ll give a few examples below, and please tell your own stories of vegetable name mix-ups in the comments.
As you’re planning your vegetable garden for this year, you’re probably thinking seeds, seeds, seeds. But not everything in the garden needs to begin with seeds. In some cases, plants started by someone else are a convenient or even economical choice. And some crops, like potatoes, are grown from last season’s tubers rather than from seeds.
Here are some crops you might consider giving a little head start by purchasing plants, tubers, bulbs, etc. Most of these will also be available in local garden centers in the proper season, but if you order them from seed companies now, you will have a much wider choice of varieties, and they will ship at the right time for planting.
Several years ago I had to give up my backyard vegetable garden because the trees nearby were casting too much shade. I was lucky enough to find a community garden plot, which is where I now grow my tomatoes, peppers, and other plants that really need full sun. I’ve got some fruit and herbs in the sunny but deer-infested areas that remain in my home half-acre, and I still like to have some vegetables close at hand, so in spring, summer, and well into the fall I use every spare inch on the deck for container growing. It’s not a full-sun space, but I still manage to get okay yields from my salad table and various pots.
Here’s some of what I have out there this year.
