Gardening

The garden is doing well.  The temperatures still have been cooler than average – but we did have a 94 degree day just a few days ago.

The rain has also stopped.  We haven’t had a decent amount of rain in over a week.  Good thing I have the rain barrels ready to go!

Let’s start with the lettuce.  It was neglected for a while and there was A LOT to pick.  But here is a photo showing some of it picked – and some not.  We had 8+ bags of gallon-sized bags of lettuce.  Gave some to our neighbor and some other friends.

Also seen above is the basil.  The basil is still making some progress – but because of the cooler temperatures, it isn’t growing as quickly.

Carrots are doing wonderful.  The neighbor had a tree that needed to be cut down last year – and it was shading the carrot area until around noon each day.  With that cleared out, the carrots have been doing much better this year.

Over by the side garden, the potatoes have really taken over – and the few tomato plants have as well.  The Cascadia Snap peas are not doing good.  I really expected a very good supply of peas this year because of the lower temps, but that isn’t happening.

A closer view of the Cascadia Snap Peas shows they are putting some pods on.

Moving to the back garden – just the typical stuff going on.  Lots of greenery, things growing.  I did plant some eggplant and cucumber seeds back here a few weeks back.  Haven’t really looked closely to see if they are growing yet.

And to the front garden where everything is doing well.  I just picked our second Snow Crown Cauliflower today – and picked our first broccoli plant.  Not sure if it was Premium Crop Broccoli or Green Goliath Broccoli.  I’m hoping for some really good-sized Varsity Onions this year.  I spaced them out further to provide more growing space – and I chose to use Varsity this year over Copra to see if that was a better variety.

A closer view of the broccoli head:

I took a quick stop over at the Granny Smith apple tree.  The deer were leaving it alone – up until this week.  Now they are really starting to eat away at the leaves.  I am just not sure how else to protect this tree – so I gave up. I’ve tried several different things and it didn’t work.  Netting was just getting tangled in the tree and broke branches off.  But, here is the one and only apple that is growing on it this year.

And finally – over by the old strawberry pyramids.  The Easter Egg radishes are definitely bolting and already have flowers open.  Wanting to get some seed for next year and subsequent years.  I also need to pull up the second round of radishes – as the first batch has went bad in the fridge.  The radishes seemed to last about three weeks in the fridge.

Just a quick blog post this evening.  I have been watching the cauliflower now for a couple of days – waiting for them to maximize their size before they started “branching” out.  With cauliflower, it is best to pick them when the curd is full and tight.  This morning, I noticed that one of them was starting to loosen up a bit – so it was time to be picked.

So we at least have success with one Snow Crown Cauliflower!  There is another one waiting to be picked as well.  But, out of six planted, only two (maybe three) will have anything on them.  The third plant has a small “button-sized” curd growing on it – so I hope it grows to be a bit larger.

Just got done picking another round of lettuce from the garden this evening!  I’ve only picked about 1/3 of the lettuce so far today as it is getting washed right now.

There still is plenty to pick as this photo shows:

You’ll notice at the bottom that the sweet basil has sprouted and is doing well.  It sprouted about two weeks ago and it is starting to take off now.

The carrots are doing fantastic as well – although there are some weeds that I need to get out of there.

Over in the side garden, the potatoes are doing very well.  The Cascadia Snap Peas are leaving more to be desired this year.  I certainly would have thought that with it being cooler than average this year – that the peas would have been doing better.

Behind the garage, it is the same story with the peas.  They are doing better back here though – compared to against the house.  That is just backwards compared to how it has been in previous years.  That tomato plants are struggling to grow well in this cool weather as wel.  I did have to buy a f ew more tomato cages this year because the ones I had previously were too small – and in very bad shape.

Moving to the front yard – where the Varsity Onions are doing well.  I had to go through and weed the front garden earlier this week – took a good 45 minutes to go through and get all of the weeds out.

Speaking of onions – look what I found down by the garden bed by the road!  A very TALL onion!  Apparently I must have missed one last year – and those puppy has sprouted up.  It appears that it is going to put a seed head on it – although I’m not sure if I will want to save the seed from the plant or not.  I might save some if I can – and just see what happens with it.

The rest of the front garden is looking pretty miserable actually.  The cauliflower and broccoli plants just didn’t take off very well.  Heck, I may not even get much of an broccoli this year.  Out of six cauliflower, only two of them have curds on them.  At least it looks like the green beans are growing well.  The California Wonder peppers are not looking too great either.

Here is a closer picture of one of the Snow Crown Cauliflower curds.

Right by the driveway, our colorful pink peonies have finally opened up.  On Sunday, they were not open – but throughout this week, they have finally opened up.  A bit later in the year for them as well – but it has been cooler.

And down by the road – the potatoes really like their new environment.  I’ve not covered them up yet – so here’s to hoping that the deer will leave them alone!

And lastly – the Ventura Celery.  They are growing well.  I also re-planted some Easter Egg radishes in place of those where I pulled some a couple weeks ago.  They are also growing well.  I did leave a few radish plants in from the previous planting – and need to thin them out.  I wanted to keep a few so they would put on some seed pods for me.

It has been a very crazy year.  The year has been blessed with rain though.  Just today, we had another storm come through that really put down a good pouring of rain.  Last night it was the same way.  We seem to be getting rain every three to four days on average.  I’ve only had to water the garden a few times – but nature is taking care of it for us!  It is nice to have a completely full rain barrel system on standby – but with the rain on a good basis, it certainly saves me at least an hour – if not more – per week of my time with no watering.

The warmer temperatures we’ve experience recently has really caused the plants to grow very quickly!  It was almost 90 degrees a couple of days ago – but for the most part, the temperatures have been steady in the 70’s and low 80’s.

I missed the weekly posting last week – so I wanted to get this one done when I could.

The lettuce has really grown.  We most likely will be ready to pick some lettuce this week.

The carrots have been doing very well too.  I had to go through and weed them out last week – and there are already more that need to be plucked out.

The side garden is going well with the potatoes.  The Cascadia Snap Peas are not doing well at all this year beside the house.  Seems that maybe 50% of them came up.

Behind the garage – the peas are doing much better – even though they don’t get as much sunlight.  Odd.  The tomatoes are also doing OK.

Going to the front yard.  The Varsity Onions have really grown – seems they have at least doubled in size in the past week alone!

Unfortunately though – the peppers and broccoli still haven’t caught on.  I am not sure if the broccoli will even bounce back to have any produce out of them.  That would be the first year for that – so I still am hoping for the best.  You can also see two rows of green beans coming up.

Over on the opposite side of the front garden are the Snow Crown Cauliflower along with some more peppers.  Same thing here – only a few of the cauliflower plants have been doing well – and the others haven’t.  Might be lucky to get two out of six cauliflower plants with produce.

Making our way over to the old strawberry pyramids – the Ventura Celery is doing quite well.  The radishes – well, the majority of them were actually picked on Sunday.

Closer look of one of the Easter Egg radishes.  It was ready to be pulled!

Look at the grape vines!  They are loaded with grape clusters this year.  If all of them bear fruit, that is going to keep the birds busy when the grapes are ripened.  I tried to get a view that shows that even way back in the background – there are clusters formed on those as well.

And the potatoes by the road.  They were mulched with the leaves I saved up front last year to help keep moisture in – and prevent the potatoes from turning green if they are made above the level of the ground.  Mulching was done on Sunday and the picture below was taken on Saturday.  I need to get netting over them soon before the deer decide to come and eat it all.

And lastly – the radish harvest.  There was at least a pound or more of radishes.

After they were all cut up and cleaned, they were ready to eat!  I’ve already cut up a few of them and used them on salads.

Once they were all picked, I then re-seeded with more radishes.  I’m not sure if they’ll have time to mature before it gets too hot for them, but time will tell.

More rain this week.  A lot more rain.  All day Saturday and Sunday, it was a light rain.

At least we had some great temperatures.  It was in the 80’s a few days this week – then of course, for the weekend – rain and colder.

The warm weather really helped to get the plants growing and there are some big changes from last week.

First up is the carrot bed and potato bin.  The potatoes are peeking through.  I had to go through the carrot bed and thin many out since I just sprinkled the seed in – instead of painstakingly going through and lining them all out.  That does mean less carrots this year since there are many spots where there could have been seed – but sometimes you have to weigh the time taken with the output.

The back garden had some work done on Sunday.  Several tomato plants were transplanted – and the Cascadia Snap Peas are still growing – but ever so slowly.  The pictures are not all that great because at about 7:30 pm on Sunday, I said “Oh wow, I forgot to take pictures!”  So it was getting dark – and I had the flash shut off on the camera.

The side garden beside the house – the potatoes are really going strong!  I also put in some PVC pipe next to the peas for watering purposes.  I’ve been pretty slow with getting the drip irrigation system out this year – but that was the first piece done.  I need to follow-up with that and put the irrigation in behind the garage (picture above) and in the front garden as well.  A couple of tomato plants were also planted in the side garden this year since I didn’t have enough space behind the garage.

The lettuce has really taken off with the weather and hopefully in a couple more weeks, we can start using some.  Simpson Elite is shown on the left, Red Salad Bowl in the middle, and New Red Fire on the right.

The Ventura celery is doing well – and so are the Easter Egg Radishes.  Wow – that just reminded me – I didn’t plant any more radishes yesterday.  I need to get another batch started so we’ll have a continual supply of them.

The picture of the front garden is really bad – blurry.  Varsity Onions continue to grow – along with the broccoli and cauliflower.  It does appear that I’ve lost at least one – if not two – of the Snow Crown Cauliflower.  One was pulled up by a deer before I got the fencing in – and the other one – just didn’t seem to transplant very well.

Down on both sides of the front garden, I planted the California Wonder Peppers between the cauliflower and broccoli – a total of eight with four being on each side of the garden patch.  Below is a photo of two of them – with the Snow Crown Cauliflower plant that is pretty much a goner.

And the last picture is Kennebec Potatoes.  They have done very well in the bed against the road.  This bed was initially going to be used for flowers and such – but I’ve taken it over again this year to put potatoes in.  I’d rather have the space be useful for something if flowers aren’t going to go in there 🙂

That is all for this week!

The cool weather still continues in Central Illinois.  Last week, it was in the mid-to-upper 40s.  However, this week is going to be different.  Even as I’m making the post today, it is 73 degrees out.  Very nice difference.

It has been very wet and cold.  We had another couple inches of rain last week.  The rain barrels are completely full – all 16 of them!  We don’t need any more rain for a little while – but we do need warm temperatures!

Which is exactly what we’ll get this week.  Tomorrow – they are saying about 84 degrees, 86 on Wednesday – then more rain and cooler temperatures the end of the week.

I managed to get out and get a few things done on Saturday.  Again, I was a little late.  On Saturday, I looked out the window and saw one of the cauliflower plants uprooted.  Upon further investigation, there were some deer tracks around it – and the leaves were completely plucked off.

Never fails.  I am a bit lazy at the beginning of the season to get the netting up around everything. Then when I have my first casualty from deer damage, then I get crackin.

I got the rest of the lettuce transplanted into the patio garden.  That allowed me to turn off another flourescent fixture downstairs and save 80 watts an hour.  I’m now down to only two light fixtures on at the germination station – keeping the tomatoes and pepper plants going.

Over by the carrots – they are starting to pop up.  Because I didn’t painstakingly go through and seed each carrot individually like I have in years past, I will have some thinning to do.  Every year, I would take the end of a pencil and make small indentations in the soil – and drop one seed in each – then cover back up.  It would take at least an hour or more to do.  It was hard on the back – and just took way too long.

This year – again – being lazy – I just took the carrot seed and sprinkled it over the area and covered it up.  How long did it take?  Maybe five minutes.  The bed is a combination of Sugarsnax carrots and Danvers Half Long.

Potatoes are coming up!  Yes they are.  Here is a picture of the Kennebec potatoes poking out of the ground.

The peas behind the garage are coming up as well – better than those against the house.  That is just the opposite of how it always is.  The peas beside the house are usually always the first to sprout.  Not this time.  It seems there is a much larger percentage of the peas behind the garage are up compared to the house.

And finally making it to the front yard.  As you can see, I did a bit different with the netting this year.  The netting is about seven feet high – but when purchased at the store, it is folded in half.  So this year I am leaving it folded – to make a fence that is about 3.5 feet high.  I also used some of the rebar I had laying around instead of the white PVC pipe – so it isn’t as noticeable in the front yard.

And lastly – the old strawberry pyramids with the Ventura Celery and Easter Egg Radishes.  The radishes are doing very well – and it looks like almost every single one of them sprouted.

That does it for this week!  Looks like it still will be a few more weeks before I can get the tomatoes and peppers transplanted outside.

This week was exceptional with the weather.  That is just how it is around Central Illinois during some parts of the season!  The weather last weekend was very nice.  Then, throughout this week, we saw well over three inches of rain.  It seemed to rain almost every single day of the week.

By the end of the week – on Friday – we woke up to very tiny ice pellets or hail.  The temperature was about 42 degrees out in the morning and about 44 degrees out when I got back home.  I took a picture of what it looked like after we had a good 10+ minute downpour of these “ice pellets”.  It was certanly something odd to see.

Also this week – the temperatures flirted with the freezing line.  It got down to about 32 degrees Friday night into Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, it did cause some damage to the broccoli and cauliflower plants out front.  Here is a picture of a broccoli plant with a little bit of frost damage on two leaves:

Another partial casualty of the week was the carrot bed.  There are a few carrots that have managed to sprout – but because of the large amount of rain that we had, it caused some runoff of some of my great, well-screened soil in the carrot bed.  I guess that means I’ll have to add some more screened compost to the bed.

On the brighter side of things, there were some developments in the garden.  One such development is some volunteer Kennebec potatoes that came up in the side garden.  They poked out last week – but they still are going strong.  I just wonder if they’ll make any large potatoes.

And right next to that – the Cascadia Snap Peas are beginning to sprout.  Here are two little juniors right next to each other:

Over in the lettuce patch, they have been hanging on for life.  One has been trying to battle back from almost complete death.  It is hard to see in the photo below (looks like a leaf almost), but at the bottom right, there is a very small lettuce plant that is trying to come back to life.  With the amount of rain that we got, I certainly thought it was going to drown out the little fella.

Next – over by the old strawberry pyramids, I planted the Ventura Celery – and also seeded in some Easter Egg Radishes.  I was concerned about how deeply I planted the radishes – but to my disbelief, almost every single one of them have sprouted in both pyramid beds!  Below is a photo of one of the celery plants with a few radish seedlings just below it:

And for the final picture – it is the germination station.  The tomato plants are getting to be exceptionally too large to stay in their small containers – and under the lights.  Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating – so I cannot plant them outside.  The pepper plants are also doing mighty well – and some lettuce is also inching to get transplanted outside.

One final thought to close out – and that is regarding damping off and how to prevent damping off.  Over the years, I have been trialing some methods to prevent this.  My first year where I was using the germination station (probably back around 2008 or 2009), I was watering all of the seedlines from the top of the containers.  You know – each of the containers that you put the seeds in – whether they be peat pellets, the black six-packs, etc.  I was having such a bad time with some of the plants just dying – and never could find out why.

Well my discovery was something called damping off disease – and it does happen to a lot of gardeners out there.  The solution to the problem – and it has worked very well for the past couple of years – water from the BOTTOM, not the TOP!  I put all of my seed trays in larger black containers – as seen in the above photo on the left.  The tomatoes are sitting in a square planter – and the square planter is then in a larger black container.  I then fill these larger black containers with water.  As the plants need water, they suck the water up through the bottom holes in the planters.  This keeps them very well hydrated – and prevents any water from being done directly to the top.

Since I’ve began using this, damping off has almost been completely eliminated.  This year, I only lost a couple of Copra Onion seeds – somehow a green moss starting growing on the top around the onions – and it did cause a few casualties.  However, I didn’t lose ANY other seedlings this year.  Everything worked well.

The celery also loved the fact that water was always available.  They seemed to suck up a good amount of water every week – and I had to replenish the container with water.  Celery certainly need a lot of water – and that was definitely shown by the amount they were consuming each week compared to the other containers.

Happy gardening!

It was a great week here in Central Illinois this year.  It was a bit on the cool side since we had a cold front come through.  But with that, we got about 1.5 inches of rain last Monday night.  That filled the rain barrels up – so we are all stocked and ready to go!

The germination station down in the basement is still going very well.  However, the tomatoes have almost got to the point where I cannot raise the lights anymore.  This year has been much cooler than usual – at least the spring.

Got several things done this week.  One of the first things that was done earlier in the week was to transplant the Ventura Celery outside.  Since we don’t have strawberries this year, I planted them in the old strawberry pyramids.  That way there is plenty of room for them to grow.

Surrounding the celery on the bottom tier are Easter Egg Radish seeds.  None of them have sprouted yet, however.  The radish seed was saved from some plants a few years back – so I’m anxious to see how well they germinate.  I think I may have planted the seeds too deep though – in some cases they were planted an inch or more.  Just will have to see if they sprout.  If not, I’ll re-seed.

I also put a good layer of some mulched-up leaves around the celery to keep the moisture in.  Celery need A LOT of water.  I was surprised to see just how much they were drinking when they were downstairs in the germination station.  I was filling a container up each week to keep them satisfied.

Over down by the flower bed, the daffodils are in full bloom.  Last weekend, I planted some Kennebec potatoes amongst them.

Also this week – I transplanted six lettuce plants into the patio garden.  On the right side are two Simpson Elite plants.  Down the middle are the Red Salad Bowl – and finally on the left are two New Red Fire.  One of them may not make it – as it doesn’t look like it transplanted very well.

Then lastly – the front garden.  It was populated today with the Varsity Onions in the front.  Then there were six Snow Crown Cauliflower planted down the left side and then three each of Premium Crop Broccoli and Green Goliath Broccoli planted on the right side.

By getting those outside, that allowed me to turn off two of the five fluorescent light fixtures in the germination station.  Any savings on energy is good!

We are to get another full week of rain – according to the weather people.  This past week – they said rain everyday.  That didn’t quite happen – but at least we did get enough to fill the barrels up.

We had a very nice weekend.  Yesterday it was a bit on the windy side, but it still got to over 70 degrees.  Today, I saw the temperature gauge outside hit about 75 degrees.  Very little wind today – and very sunny.

We celebrated our daughter’s first birthday yesterday – so we were quite busy with having family over.

After everyone left, I got outside and got the Cascadia Snap Peas sowed.  The garden beds don’t look like much right now, but these are the two areas that the Cascadia Snap Peas were sowed – alongside the house and behind the garage.

This year – I am not fully sure what else is going to go in the side garden (first picture above).  I did, however, go out today and plant about seven Kennebec potatoes in that spot – but it still leaves a good area to fill in.  Right near the bottom of the picture – by the garden hose – is another area.  Last year I put Sweet Basil there – but it did terrible.  We did Crimson Sweet Watermelon there the year before and we did get a few 13+ pound watermelons – but they didn’t seem to have a very sugary taste.

Behind the garage this year (just pictured above), the peas are going by the fencing that is right behind the garage.  Tomatoes will then be planted back here this year.  I rotated them between the side garden a couple years back – then to the front garden for the other two years.  Gotta keep a rotation of things.  Just hope that the deer will stay out of them!

Yesterday I also got the rain barrel system hooked back up.  I managed to break a 1/2-inch PVC pipe that comes down from the structure – but got had some spare parts and get it glued back together.

A few weekends ago, I got outside and got the grape vines all pruned back.  They were very unruly everywhere – and they got a big haircut.  In the picture below, you almost can’t even see any vines because they were pruned back quite a bit.

Just in front of the grape arbor are two strawberry pyramids.  Well, they lasted a couple of years – and last year saw the demise of all of the Tri-Star strawberries.  I’m not sure what to put in this area this year.  Maybe one broccoli plant in each of them – or something.  Just almost seems a waste to put one plant in each of these spots.

The front garden is going to be used for many purposes this year.  It doesn’t look like much now (pictured below) – but it will in a few weeks.  The Ventura Celery is already busting at the seams waiting to be transplanted – and so are the Varsity Onions.  They both wll go in the front garden along with four rows of Bush Blue Lake green beans.  Some California Wonder Peppers, Snow Crown Cauliflower, and Green Goliath Broccoli will also call the front garden home this year.

I really am beginning to miss the old house where we had a huge backyard and I could do anything I wanted – all in one very large garden.  This house – there just isn’t any space in the back at all.  So I had to build garden beds in the front yard.  But, they just don’t look all that great when they become filled with produce during the summer.  I’m really surprised that none of the neighbors have complained or said anything to me.  But, in the sake of respect (and possible resale), I am not going to be building anything more in the front yard.  It is already ‘junked’ up enough.

What else was done today?  Well, I had to do quite a bit of work on the carrot bed that sits on the driveway.  One side was really beginning to bow out towards the driveway.  The carrot bed is either three or four years old – and some of the wood that was holding it together broke loose.

So I had to dig the soil out from one side of the wood and cut some new pices to get it re-aligned.  I then sowed some Sugarsnax carrots and Danvers Half Long carrots.  Every year – up until this year – I used to go through with a pencil head and measure two inches apart in each direction – and sow one seed individually.  That took at least two hours every year.  This year, I decided I wasn’t putting that time into it.  I just sprinkled the seed throughout the bed – and just hope that everything comes up OK.

View from the front of the drivway:

View from the back:

I then used a light sprayer and sprayed down the area to give some moisture to the seeds.

What did the bed used to look like?  Well, below is a picture from last year.  You can see the difference between the pictures above and this picture – how the one side is bowed out:

The above picture doesn’t look terrible – but this year it was BAD.  The bow was at least twice as wide as it is shown above.

The next area is where all of the lettuce will be – and probably some radishes will be planted here very soon.  Looking pretty bare right now without anything in it.  This one is also sitting on the driveway – next to the patio.

And we come down to the last photo.  This is against the road – our “flower bed” as it once was.  The daffodils are coming up and a few tulip leaves as well.  Today, I just got done planting about 35 – 40 Kennebec potatoes here.  Not great thinking on my part – but I didn’t have any other place to put the potatoes this year.  I’ve put them behind the garage for the past two years – but the tomatoes are going there this year.

When it comes time to digging up the potatoes, unfortunately the daffodil and tulip bulbs are probably going to be dug up too.  So, this is why it wasn’t very good thinking on my part.

That does it for this week’s edition.  Maybe next week I can get some time to post as well.

It has been an exceptionally long time since my last post on the garden blog.  It appears the last one was around June of 2012!  Well, last year was a disaster.  We had a really extreme summer with a major heatwave – and little to no rain.  In addition, it was the birth of our daughter back in April as well – so I was absolutely bombared with other things that needed more attention.  So mid year last year, I stopped posting.  Hopefully this year I’ll be able to do some kind of normal postings.

But, if this year has just as bad weather wise, the blog will probably have just a few posts like last year.

Let’s start off with some pictures.  Time time last year, it was 80 degrees already.  Today, it was SNOWING out.  We got the largest snowstorm of the season – and it is Spring!  What happened?  We had two other snow events earlier in the season – but now we just got about 8 or more inches of snow today!

It took me over 1.5 hours to use the snow blower to clear it.  I tried to get out there and get through it – but it was wet, heavy snow.  Not fun.  To make matters worse, I got the back driveway done (pictured below) and then I lost a swivel nut for the handle for the snow blower.  So I had to take the swivel nut from the thower so I could at least finish the driveway.

Amazing – one year and what a difference.  From 80 degrees – to about 30 degrees this year.  I’m hopeful that maybe this means this summer won’t be nearly as warm.  It has been unseasonable cold for the past week or so here according to the weather folks.  Last year it was unseasonably warmer.

Downstairs, the ‘germination station’ is going well.  The Ventura celery was started around the beginning of the year along with the Varsity onions.

At the beginning of March, several other items were seeded.  Six Snow Crown Cauliflower, five Green Goliath Broccoli, five Premium Crop Broccoli, and a lot of California Wonder Peppers.

All of the cauliflower and all of the broccoli sprouted.  Amazing.  The seed is at least two or more years old now.

Tomatoes were also planted at the beginning of March as well.  Five Red Cherry tomatoes, about six Roma Tomatoes, and around nine Best Boy.  Not ONE of the Roma tomatoes sprouted.  Two of the Red Cherry tomatoes sprouted.  And, almost all of the Best Boy tomatoes sprouted.  So I had to transplant some of the Best Boy tomatoes into their own containers.  I planted three seeds of each in a square container.

And lastly is the lettuce.  Last year, I had great success with Simpson Elite, Red Salad Bowl, and New Red Fire lettuce.  We had POUNDS of lettuce and we had to give a lot away.  the first planting was also done around March 1st with a second planting just last weekend.  they are coming along well – and there are 12 plants now.

That is all for this post.  Maybe the weather will start to get warmer – but they are saying 40’s this coming week.  Just thinking… last year I was planting peas and potatoes.  Today, we get a heavy snow storm – and I just bought the Kennebec seed potatoes today at Rural King for 35 cents a pound.  What a difference a year makes.