07/07/2026
This is my least favorite time in the garden. It was time to hill the potatoes. It always comes at the hottest time of the year. I usually just hill the potatoes with extra leaves I gathered last fall, but I didn't gather enough so I had to mound up dirt from the side of the bed. As I always do when I'm lazy and don't want to do something, I wondered if I really need to hill potatoes at all. Once I was done, I got on the googles and looked up information. Turns out, there are 2 kinds of potatoes (just like tomatoes): determinate and indeterminate. You need to hill indeterminate potatoes because the potato forms on the stem of the potato plant and the more you hill, the longer the stem will be so you will get more potatoes. Determinate plants only form potatoes in one horizontal layer, right above the seed potato that was planted. Therefore, no need for hilling. The only indeterminate variety I have is German Butterball. I'll replace that variety next year with a determinate kind so I don't have to hill anymore.
Ok, enough science talk for one post. Potatoes won't be ready to dig for at least a month. What I have this week is radish, green onions, garlic scapes, leaf lettuce, kohlrabi, kale, swiss chard, strawberries, fresh herbs of chamomile, orange mint, chives, oregano, sage, parsley, basil and cilantro. Once again, I will have eggs.