The only thing that ever bothers me about living in the South is July and August. It gets incredibly hot here and since we live near the Gulf coast, it is of course, humid as all get out.
But despite the hot summer what I LOVE about living here is that I can harvest veggies and fruit just about every day of the year.
Today (and it’s only April) I brought in quiet a bundle: Broccoli, Peas, Swiss Chard, Spinach, one potato, Lettuce and Cilantro.
One Potato? you ask. Well let me tell you why I have only one potato today. Now before I planted the potatoes back in February, I was following a technique using Bokashi Composting. Basically, Bokashi composting is an ancient way of using table scraps to vamp up your soil. Â While I was harvesting from my garden today, I noticed that there were three very different kind of plants with yellow flowers growing out of the side of the potato patch. I went over to investigate, thinking that a couple of very big weeds had taken root. I was ready to pluck them out of there until I realized what they were.
So, what were the funny looking plants growing out of the side of my potato patch? Well, they were tomato plants. Apparently, there were some tomato seeds that took root there from my composting materials. They even had several tomatoes on the plants.
Needless to say, I didn’t just pluck them up and throw them out.
I dug them up by the roots. As I was digging them up I was coming across lots and lots of potatoes that were growing right alongside the tomato roots. One of the potatoes was torn from its mother plant so I brought it in with the rest of the harvest. That’s how I got just one potato. The rest aren’t ready yet. Not till round about May, I guess. But I’ve got one, and I was really kind of excited to get one this early.
As for the tomato plants? Well, I transplanted them to my space reserved for tomatoes. They seem to be okay, only time will tell. But since I now have three extra tomato plants that means I am now growing 12 tomato plants instead of 9. Looks like I’ll be canning up lots of tomatoes this year.
You just never know what your going to find going on in the garden. I swear I was out inspecting the potatoes just last week and didn’t suspect a thing. Now I have three gorgeous tomato plants that are much further along than my other tomatoes.
Do you have any funny garden stories? If so, leave me a note and tell me about it.