Potato Planting

This spring has been soggy and cold. I planted my potatoes today - a bit late, but the soil finally dried out enough to till.

And my snap peas did not rot in the ground - they are all of 4 inches high.
Also a late plant in mid-April.

 Anyhow - I thought as I was digging holes that I would share some potato tips.
These are Norland Reds.

The first thing to do is cut them up. Two eyes per piece. See those growths that look like warts? Those are called eyes. Some of the eyes are really growing, others are teeny with just a pink/red spot on the potato skin.

On these smaller reds, you can cut them up into two or three pieces. Let them 'dry' for a few hours. This seals the wet part so it grows instead of rotting.

Your holes should be about 2 feet apart and about 10 inches deep. Or so. By the 20th hole, whatever floats your boat. You can add fertilizer or compost if you desire but my soil is pretty awesome for potatoes.

Place two pieces of potatoes at the bottom of each hole with eyes up to the sky.
Cover the hole halfway with dirt. We'll be infilling later as the green shoots emerge.

 That's it.

 Onto the patio. Most of the hanging baskets and pots have been pruned, churned up, and planted. Lots of time-release fertilizer and slug bait. These hanging baskets are heavy feeders and need extra food to grow.

If you look closely, I have hung my airplane decorations.  My kids painted these over twenty years ago from wood kits. They have held up remarkably good hanging outside all summer.

First Day of Summer

. . .finally.

I don't have to be into work until a bit later but my sleep clock doesn't know that. I awoke to a beautiful first day of summer with the sun arising (covered with clouds until today) and the birds singing. I had time to savor my coffee amongst my flowers and peas.

Foreground: Iris, remnants of Forget-me-nots.
Middle: Cantebury Bells and Valerian (Jupiter's Beard).
Background: Towering Foxgloves.

 Before the sun hits the Rose Campion

 Another gorgeous Iris at dawn.

Love In A Mist- I remembered the common name of Nigella!
With the dew of summer.

Don't get sucked into this white Iris. I didn't want to take a photo of this nasty little rhizomes-down -to-china Iris but if I ever sucker you into taking this little beauty home, just know that the rhizomes are like a skyscraper underground. It eventually gets so incredibly rootbound, it won't bloom. Any part of a rhizome left in the ground will send up a shoot.

 These Cantebury Bells did not make the ruthless cut this Spring. The person who maintains this acre now has a new and more doable ruthlessness. Wait until the pretties bloom and then whack 'em.
So- these are a biennial flower. Growing the first season, blooming and setting seed the next.
Sometimes, they become Cup & Saucer's. The above photo shows the saucer. Below is just the bell.

I do, however, have three colors of Cantebury Bells in my yard. I have only found one plant with saucers so far this year.  I might have to keep her in the hopes that she will reseed true. . .(slap my hand now - there really isn't a good place in the new garden for these flowers. But if I only kept one. . . ) There is also a white which either hasn't bloomed this year or is about to.