Sunday, July 02, 2006
Hauling potatoes to Edmonton...
So, here we are in sunny Edmonton where this week's weather forecast suggests it should remain in the high 20s to low 30s degrees C.
There's much more to come to tell you all about moving from Cow Town to River City (aka 'City of Champions'), but I thought I'd let you all know how the potatoes are doing. Some of you who remember the pumpkin series from Halloween 2005 will see a vegetable metamorphosis sub-theme developing here.
We took a notion this year that we'd like to try growing potatoes. We had great success last year with scallions (aka green onions) and courgette (aka zucchini), so we thought we'd try to expand the repertoire with a few potatoes - only problem being that they needed to be planted before we left Calgary. Obviously there was no point in planting spuds and then leaving them in the garden for the next residents of Tuscarora, so the solution was to try them in a series of large bucket sized pots. We went to Sunnyside garden centre and picked out a small box of seed potatoes of the Kennebec variety. Needless to say, we were a bit late in the season so the box we bought contained lots of potatoes that had already sprouted. Undaunted, we popped one in each of 8 big pots, covered them with soil and some stones, and waited...
By the way, the big pot to the left has a couple of courgette seeds in it...
About three weeks after planting, all of the pots started sprouting little green tops that steadily got bigger and bigger...
Then of course, the next problem was transportation from Calgary to Edmonton. The week we moved house was the warmest of the year so far. The movers were taking all of our possessions (minus anything liquid (including mysteriously enough - jam) or flammable) on Friday 23rd June, and we wouldn't see it again until Wednesday 28th June. The plan was to load the truck, let it sit somewhere for a few days and then cart it to Edmonton. We weren't sure that the potatoes would do too well in a dark hot truck for several days. Also, although the movers will move plants, they won't insure them against damage (how would you insure a potato plant anyway!?). So, the trusty Honda was pressed into service as a potato carrying vehicle.
Luckily enough the boot on a Honda Civic is big enough to pack in six big pots with relatively tall potatoes...
They did okay in the Honda boot and now they're sitting happily in some dappled shade cast by a very large spruce tree in our new garden in Edmonton...
By the way, some of you who visited Tuscarora will appreciate the fact that the large spruce is a luxury we didn't have in our Calgary neighbourhood...
Here's the view from the back door of Tuscarora...
And here is what we have at the back of our Edmonton house... only downside is no view of the mountains. Having said that, it is a real treat to be surrounded by trees again and to have nobody looking in the back windows.
More later....
P
There's much more to come to tell you all about moving from Cow Town to River City (aka 'City of Champions'), but I thought I'd let you all know how the potatoes are doing. Some of you who remember the pumpkin series from Halloween 2005 will see a vegetable metamorphosis sub-theme developing here.
We took a notion this year that we'd like to try growing potatoes. We had great success last year with scallions (aka green onions) and courgette (aka zucchini), so we thought we'd try to expand the repertoire with a few potatoes - only problem being that they needed to be planted before we left Calgary. Obviously there was no point in planting spuds and then leaving them in the garden for the next residents of Tuscarora, so the solution was to try them in a series of large bucket sized pots. We went to Sunnyside garden centre and picked out a small box of seed potatoes of the Kennebec variety. Needless to say, we were a bit late in the season so the box we bought contained lots of potatoes that had already sprouted. Undaunted, we popped one in each of 8 big pots, covered them with soil and some stones, and waited...
By the way, the big pot to the left has a couple of courgette seeds in it...
About three weeks after planting, all of the pots started sprouting little green tops that steadily got bigger and bigger...
Then of course, the next problem was transportation from Calgary to Edmonton. The week we moved house was the warmest of the year so far. The movers were taking all of our possessions (minus anything liquid (including mysteriously enough - jam) or flammable) on Friday 23rd June, and we wouldn't see it again until Wednesday 28th June. The plan was to load the truck, let it sit somewhere for a few days and then cart it to Edmonton. We weren't sure that the potatoes would do too well in a dark hot truck for several days. Also, although the movers will move plants, they won't insure them against damage (how would you insure a potato plant anyway!?). So, the trusty Honda was pressed into service as a potato carrying vehicle.
Luckily enough the boot on a Honda Civic is big enough to pack in six big pots with relatively tall potatoes...
They did okay in the Honda boot and now they're sitting happily in some dappled shade cast by a very large spruce tree in our new garden in Edmonton...
By the way, some of you who visited Tuscarora will appreciate the fact that the large spruce is a luxury we didn't have in our Calgary neighbourhood...
Here's the view from the back door of Tuscarora...
And here is what we have at the back of our Edmonton house... only downside is no view of the mountains. Having said that, it is a real treat to be surrounded by trees again and to have nobody looking in the back windows.
More later....
P
Comments:
Post a Comment
