Digging for Buried Treasure

The year our daughter was nine, her dad and I decided to harvest the potatoes from our garden on an afternoon when she wasn't home. When she returned home later that day and found out what we'd done without her, she was a smidge-bit upset with us. I didn't know at the time it was an activity she enjoyed so much, but I do know I've always counted it as a fun thing to do. I mean you just never know what the next forkful will turn up. A bunch of little golf ball taters or that one honkin' big one that you just have to weigh so you can brag about it.

Roy and I finished digging our potatoes yesterday. And, well, folks, the Great Potato Planting Trials for 2008 are over. If you remember way back this summer, I blogged about planting some rows under mulch and some under dirt using the old-fashioned hilling method. The statistics are in.

From one sixteen foot long row planted under dirt, we got 32 lbs. of white potatoes. From one sixteen foot long row planted under dirt, we got 28 lbs. of red potatoes. From two (yes, I said two) sixteen foot long rows planted under mulch, we got 27 lbs. of red potatoes. Ugh. Just about exactly twice as big a yield from those planted under dirt vs. those planted under mulch. And, sad to say but true, the 27 lbs. of reds planted under the mulch are much smaller in size.

One growing season may not a true test trial make, but it doesn't look good for the lady who likes planting under mulch. Oh, well. Sigh. I can learn to like hilling up potatoes. Waaaaah.