DiggIn’ – Gardening, Unemployment and the Quest that is Life

Potato Miracle

Miracles do happen! Tomato Man noticed first this morning when he was weeding but he didn’t tell me. I had noticed but not realized yesterday as I looked at the front yard mailbox garden bed after walking the dog. I noticed what I thought were small trees growing in the mailbox bed. I figured I’d pull them out today when I went to put in the winter squash for this year.

The mailbox garden bed is called that because it is the closest to the mailbox . (I am a simple soul, aren’t I?) Last year, this bed was devoted to potatoes. I had three types planted: one white potato, Kennebec; one gold potato, Yukon Gold; and one red, Dark Red Norland. The bed was fairly productive because it gets a lot of sun, but the soil still needs developing.

This afternoon, I went out to plant some winter squash in the bed. Squash does not need particularly good soil to thrive, so I thought squash would be a good choice for this year in that bed. I don’t have much time to do much with the soil as I’m digging up the backyard to put in new beds. Doing as I thought I would, I tried to pull up one of the “small trees”.  It didn’t come up willingly, which was pretty much what I expected. So I put my shovel to it, figuring I’d cut it off from whatever tree root it was connected to.

Much to my surprise, the “small tree” was a potato. I had forgotten how lovely potatoes are as they grow, those ivy-shaped leaves unfolding into a dark shade of green. Who wouldn’t mistake a plant this majestic for a small tree? I then noticed two more “small trees” in the bed. I dug them up, too.

I forgot about planting the winter squash and went to the backyard where I had left 15 square feet in my “Unlucky Bed” for potatoes. Potatoes had done very well in that bed last year. It is very fertile and gets a decent amount of sun. Yesterday, I planted two potatoes I had found in that bed when I turned it over. I dug holes for the three “potato miracles” I found in the mailbox bed.

Realizing that there might be more “potato miracles” in beds where I had potatoes last year, I began to look around. I saw the beautiful, dark green leaves growing near a fence post. I began to dig in a bit of a “potato fever”. This wild potato was quite something. It was the most grown of all the “potato miracles” but its seed potato was actually UNDER the concrete foundation of the fence post. I kept digging and digging, trying to get at the seed, but could only manage to slice it in half. I did get the sprout with roots and the amazing leaves. I decided to plant that, hoping it would continue to grow. I put the dirt back over the “fence post potato”, hoping it might sprout again.

So, I had planted six potatoes from last year’s crop, two I found when I turned over a bed and the four potato miracles I found today. To finish off the row, I pulled two red potatoes from our supply from the store and planted them, too. I now have eight potatoes in the ground, all of them unexpectedly.

I am amazed these potatoes made it through our rough winter. I must have missed them in the harvest last year. Maybe they were too small to harvest. All I know, is this year I will seriously look at overwintering potatoes rather than doing it by accident.

After I had planted them, I ran in the house to tell my husband. “Guess what I found!” I said. He looked at me, thought about it and then replied, “Don’t tell me! You found the potatoes in the mailbox bed!”

The Tomato Man knows!

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