Our potato experiment

It could have worked. Next year, it will. There's a patch of natural weeds to the south of our garden spot just begging for some attention. Since there's not need to till your garden each year, I talked JC into helping me with the potato experiment.
Because I cannot resist seed catalogs I ordered 25 sets of red, white and blue potatoes. (The hummingbird is behind me.) We do not have room in the garden for all those plants so we thought if we could make use of the little property beside it we would learn a few things.
So we thought if we used some Roundup to kill the weeds, dug some holes (85 in all) and planted potatoes, we could super mulch and the weeds would stay away and the potatoes would thrive. We have sandy river-bottom soil.
Well, it began good and well, but as the days passed the weeds became stronger and stronger. We are thinking the weeds were not thoroughly killed and they came back, with a vengeance. Even after mulching with straw and paper; almost creating a paper mache around each plant, the spurge and showy milkweed among other natives just wouldn't give up.
The potatoes survived, at least most of them, but by comparison to the ones in the garden in town, they are tiny.... and that's too bad, I was really looking forward to some awesome colored spuds.
So yesterday while roaming around in the jungle of a garden I thought I would see what was under those tiny plants. Well, guess what, there's potatoes down there. Not huge, but we got a late start. I was very excited and so plans are to pull those at the end of summer and begin the kill system again... somehow, we should be able to get some thing to flourish and extend our garden, our local eating and our work. It's okay. The reward of fresh food outweighs anything that closely resembles work in the garden.

Thanksgiving

Wow, the end of the month already and here we are ... no snow? I'm puzzled a bit because it's hard to get in the spirit of things without some kind of winter weather. It's gray out today, but didn't rain or snow last night like predicted.
So how thankful are you this year? I actually feel somewhat guilty when I hear stories of unemployment and food pantry lines getting longer and longer. We are so very fortunate to live in a state where folks are responsible and sensible with money matters. We also still like to work, or at least we realize we need jobs to keep providing for our families. In my current job I have had the pleasure of meeting many new friends over the past year and we all like vegetables, gardening, cooking and canning.
I'm grateful for that.
I'm also thankful that our family is safe and in good health. I'm praying for a good next year as there are always many changes on the horizon.
Give thanks, be happy...