This is the bed the garlic is supposed to go in. This is also the same bed that's been dug up each night for a week by some animal. Every day I level back the soil and every morning it's been wallowed in again. At least the creature is focusing his efforts in one place instead of the whole garden. The other place they were going to go is where the sweet potatoes are in the corner yard. I figured I'd just go ahead and take those out so the broccoli could have some more sun as well. I started with the other corner yard. This place hasn't gotten more than 30 minutes of sun a day since mid September, so I knew my harvest wouldn't be exciting. I was right:
Very small, and not very exciting. I took a deep sigh and went to remove the tubers from the main corner yard:
WOOHOO!!!!! My veggie scale doesn't go past two pounds, so I made the man get on the scale with the box and weighed that way, these babies were 9.5 pounds! I know it's not as exciting and the tubers aren't as fat as many, but I was rather thrilled. There are a few large ones that will be good for baking, but what do I do with all of the thinner, long ones? Do those just need to get tossed?I am pretty excited, given the box only got 4-5 hours of sun all year. Not too shabby.
Ohhhh, steam em up and eat em! Cook em all together! I'd hate to throw my successes away! Even small ones!
ReplyDeleteWhoohoo! That looks like a nice batch of sweet potatoes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can cover your box with chicken wire to keep out the nasty wallowing mystery animal.
Good idea Shawn Ann.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, you read my mind. I remembered not 30 min. ago that we had some extra dog proof screen (plastic coated screening) and I could put some of that over it and staple it down.
Since nothing comes through the surface until spring, it's fantastic!
Toss the thin ones?! I would clean and cut them into cube(ish) sizes and roast them skin and all.
ReplyDeleteWell, look at you! That's more weight than my first container harvest. You have to eat them all!!No way am I throwing little ones away. Steaming them is an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteEG, I was shocked. Totally shocked. We cooked up the two largest tonight for dinner. I was a very happy lady.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I'll do them next year, they take up a ton of room and shade things a bit much when the time comes for the fall plantings, but it was fun.
Congrats on your sweet potato harvest!! Eat them all up and enjoy, you earned these.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the critter, block him out with chicken wire. Garlic isn't very tasty to many critters anyway.
Oh cool! Congrats on your fun harvest. I just checked my sweet potatoes this morning. :)
ReplyDeleteYum, sweet potatoes. I hope the box cover worked well -- sometimes you just have to use physical barriers.
ReplyDeleteYum, make sure you do sweet potato fries - my favorite! I don't even like them any other way, lol... we dredge them in olive oil and garlic and oven-fry them with a little sea salt sprinkled on. I feel for you on your box-critter. I haven't noticed any digging yet, but am smelling the unmistakable odor of cat spray around my garden fence, yuck! Not sure how to repel cats yet other than the BB gun my hubby wants to use (I won't let him even though I don't like cats, either!)
ReplyDeleteYaaay! Glad to see you had success!
ReplyDelete