Chico Canyon Ranch Blog

Rotate the area potatoes are planted. Don’t go back to the same plot for 3 years.

Plant in early spring ( four weeks before the last frost – soil temp should be at least 40 degrees F.)  or late fall after the first frost may need mulch for frost protection.

Cut into chucks with 1 to 2 eyes per chuck. ( small potatoes plant whole) . Lay the potatoes out in a well ventilated space for one or two days to harden up /callus over the cut part.  (Should be seed potatoes not food potatoes that may have been treated to prevent sprouting. )

Potatoes wnat light soil with lots of compost and no weeds to compete with. Must have some way to cover the tubers forming on the stem to protect them from light etc.

8 inch deep trench, plant potatoes about 8-9 inches apart with rows about 3 ft apart. Cover potatoes with 4 inches of soil and then cover with 4 or 6 inches of mulch. In the spring when plants get to be 4 to 6 inches tall you can begin hilling.  Harvest any time after they flower, but only harvest what you can eat because they won’t keep.

 

18 new chicks are growing up fast at home in Chico. Alden is sweeping down the cobwebs and cleaning out the coop.  The chicken poo and straw goes down to the “composting center” by the pole barn.

Glorious Day for working in the garden.  Here is a panorama of the garden after the cover crop has been cut up with the string mower. We will now use the broad fork to gently dig the soil a bit, add some helpful nutrients for the soil organisms and broad fork again.

 

This Sunday in the morning I planted four new grapevines on the point and started to build the deer barrier. Then Jordan Reed arrived and we continued to complete some electrical clean up and improvement.  New switches, new conduit, junctions, & sub-panels and a new light post at the YAHB.

Top photo is the trench to the light post. Second photo is the new switch & outlets at the pole barn, the last photo is of Jordan Reed our friend who is an electrician.

There is still one more fuel break work to be done.  On the south of the house, toward the trail to the spring, the trees & shrubs are still too thick and close to the house for my liking.  So little by little Juan & I cut and pile and sometimes burn.

 

The storm worked perfectly with my schedule today. In the early morning it was just misting in between light rain. Driving up the hill you really only needed your wipers on extra slow.  The fog became pretty heavy at about 500′ elevation and I had to slow down. By the time I made it to the canyon gate it was just misting, not raining. I love walking around in the canyon woods, in that weather. It feels like you are scuba diving. The world  is under a wonderful green canopy over moss and fern covered rocks and trees.  All the amazing shades of greens, yellows, and browns. The wind gently swathing the trees gives the sense of waves.

So instead of staying in the shop to start building the Top Bar beehives I ventured out with Juan to find any over looked patches of Scotch Broom for pulling up. It is amazing how easily the young broom plants pull out of the ground, long tap root and all, when the ground is moist. Winter/spring is the only broom pulling season. When the soil dries out it is impossible to pull even the smallest plants out by their roots. We have made very good progress over the years with beating back the broom. There are now only a few big plant patches – that I know of.  So going around and searching out the emerging broom patches is an important chore.