Hilling Potatoes

I have begun the process of hilling the potato plants.  I'm not sure if I am doing it right, but I've read lots of descriptions and think we'll be ok.  It is just so counter-intuitive for a gardener to cover half of a growing plant with dirt.  I feel like I'm smothering it.

I started this process a couple of days ago.  Remember, I have over 100 potato plants...not a project for a single afternoon.  In addition to hilling, I have to do some weeding to prepare for the hilling.  Until now, I have been weeding around the potatoes, but not weeding the entire row.  Since I need to loosen the soil around the potato in order to gather it over the plant, I needed to remove the weeds first.

I've gotten to the point now where I start weeding on my hands and knees, I don't pretend that I can do it bent over anymore.  I have also learned that while it is a bit muddier, it is a lot easier to pull weeds just after the pivot has watered the garden.  So, by the end of a session, I have to strip out of my jeans and jump into a shower.  While weeding, I started wondering if there would be a way you could protect the potato plants from goats, but allow them to come in and just eat the weeds.  It wouldn't work on the row vegetables very much and you would still have to weed right around the base of the plant, but it would be cool if the goats could weed for you.  Maybe if you put buckets over the tops of the plants while they ate...but then you'd have to weight them down or they'd knock over the buckets.  And knowing goats, potato plants would end up being their favorite plant (even though they are considered toxic).

After weeding the entire row of potatoes, I gathered the soil around the base of each potato plant.  I covered the lower branches of the plant as well as just the "trunk."  I wonder if cutting the limbs off of the trunk would be an acceptable alternative.  I made sure to clump dirt over each branch to keep it pressed down, but I was careful not to break any of them. 

The potato plants are about 10 inches tall, so I covered all but about 4 inches of the inner leaves/limbs.  It was hard to get the mounds to stay where they are and not slip down off of the limbs. 

I remember seeing someone who used tires for their potato plants and wonder if that might be the right way to do it.  The planted the potato and when it was about 15 inches tall, they set a tire over the plant and filled it with dirt.  When the potato had grown another 15 inches, they stacked a second tire on the first and filled it with dirt.  Then when they were ready to harvest, they just pulled the tires off and were able to access the spuds.

A couple of other quick notes...

I weeded the carrots.  The ones that were completely overgrown with weeds seemed to be growing stronger and bigger than the carrots that were exposed on the tops of the hills.  I'm wondering if carrots might like some sort of cover crop planted along with them...maybe a creeping plant so that the root structure wouldn't invade the carrot's root space?  I may have to try that next year.

The spinach is getting much bigger and it is becoming obvious that the thinned spinach is thriving more than the unthinned spinach.  While it may be a pain to go in and thin, the spinach likes to have a bit of space.

The radishes are getting HUGE.  I have two orders to deliver to Central Oregon Locavore on Thursday and I'm just hoping that the radishes aren't too woody by the time I pick them.  It seems like they wilt so quickly after picking that I don't want to pick them much before Thursday morning.  I pulled one out today that was the size of a plum.  It was spicy, but good.

The corn is almost 5 inches tall and bright green.  I think I'm going to have to weed the entire row for the corn, as the weeds on the sides and in the middle are getting tall enough that they are shading the sprouts.

Still haven't gotten the beans in the ground yet.  If I don't get them done this weekend, I think we'll be too late to get any harvest.  We need to disc the far end of the garden again as it is so full of grass and weeds that we cannot effectively plant.  I need J to help me with that.