Dirty Business

I had these plans for this evening after work. I was going to come home, fed myself because I was starving, walk Dogger, feed Dogger and then maybe watch a little TV while I waited for rush hour to wind down - and then I was going to head out to my home improvement store and pick up a few bags of dirt for the potatoes.

Over the weekend The Barrel was transformed into The BarrelS - so cute now! and I really want to get my crop  going soon. My study of potato growing has informed me that they like cooler weather over warmer weather when they are starting out and its going to get warm here sooner rather than later, it behooves me to get these things to bed now.

I can't plant them until I have a planting medium and so that was my plan. eat, wait, go-buy-dirt. Its not complicated. And then it rained. I don't see myself dealing with heavy bags of dirt and then trying to get them into the car - which is all ready full of Bike - but not so full that I would not be able to get some bags of dirt in, with a little effort. I do not see myself first hefting bags of dirt and then doing a  lot of thinking while standing in the rain. I think it would be the best way to get them all irrigated into their new homes but I don't see myself re-homing them while standing in the rain up to my elbows in mud.

I do see myself cutting up my one very large spud so it can sit for 24 hours and develop a "callus" to protect it from fungus and disease. I approve of this, I can also do this in the warmthish and dryness of my house, inside where it is not wet.

While I was listening to it rain, I had some hope that it might slow down or even stop. I thought I would go out after that - later than in my original plan, but better than not at all, but now I see that its going to be tomorrow at lunch and I will have to count the lifting and hefting of bags as my lunchtime exercise. I might even remove Bike from the back of the car to facilitate the bags of dirt.

 I just have to decide how many bags to get and how many each new barrel will need. The instructions say that I need to start off with six inches of dirt at the bottom of the barrel, but not how many bags of dirt that equals. I really wish the dirt store was open because then it wouldn't be about how many bags it would just be about getting the dirt from one place to another.

 The directions go on to say that I just scatter my seed potatoes over that and wait for those potatoes to  sprout and then wait until those sprouts are 6-8 inches tall and then add more dirt and then repeat this every time the plants get taller until I reach the top of the barrels - an at that point I add bush beans to the barrels to act as a natural barrier to some sort of worm creatures. One kind eats the potatoes and the other eats the beans and if you grow them together ypu don't get either.