Potatoes, strawberries and sunflowers

Tonight when I returned from my off farm job, I watered the remaining plants in the greenhouse and planted potatoes.  Aged compost is mixed with some good soil and about a pound of seed potatoes to the bottom tire.  As the plants emerge, dirt will be added until the top tire is filled.  This year, there are enough left over tires (my cousin and I both replaced our rigs this year and the old tires don't fit the new-to-us cars) that I might try a third level.  Last year the yield was a little better than 25 lbs from one set of two stacked tires.  I don't know that I can double it, but even another 25% would be awesome.  There remains another couple pounds of potatoes meant for Zeb that sprouted before he got them; back to the barn tomorrow night for another set of radials.

The greenhouse is looking pretty barren as transplants move from the shelves to the soil.  Some of the last plants to leave are the flowers.  Many are already in; but even though these leggy, sad looking transplants are the last into the ground, they will grow into eight to ten foot tall sunflowers.  I will pick the best looking one and cover it with some pantyhose leftover from a corporate life I fondly remember, but no longer participate in.  There is a beetle which bores into the seed leaving good size holes and killing the seed.  Last year they left me with less than 20 good seeds and only four of them germinated.  It would be nice to have some seeds for snacking and salads but right now I grow them because I like them and to attract the wild birds.

Next to the sunflowers is the freshly weeded strawberry patch, one that is far too small for all the strawberries that Little man consumes in two weeks, let alone a season.  My objective this year is to get a yield, no matter how small.  If I am successful in keeping the moles, chipmunks, squirrels, birds and bugs away from the berries, without the use of pesticides, then I will expand the patch.  The strawberries will be harvested long before the sunflowers ripen, so those birds shouldn't be an issue.  My first patch of berries was planted where there was entirely too much weed pressure.  I spent at least an hour a week weeding that patch (weeding doesn't make you money, although it is a good stress reliever) and it was still a losing battle.  When there were finally berries on the vine, we would get two and the rest would go to the critters.  Eventually there will be enough berries grown on this farm to fill all the pies for farmers market and fill Little man's quota.  Maybe I should start clearing another couple of acres...