The Garden Project: It’s Alive (I think)
It’s been about three weeks since I tortured myself by running 10 painful miles* then using a hoe for 3 hours Steven and I planted our seeds/bulbs and a few things are popping up!
Okay, mostly onions:
some cucumber:
uh… green beans (PLEASE PLEASE GROW YOU LITTLE GUYS!):
And what has the potential of being lettuce** (my mom told me it’s not a weed if it grows in a straight line right where I happened to plant seeds):
Now, I have something really exciting/creepy to show you guys, but first, I must show you Steven’s watering technique:
(That is before we got smart and brought empty cat litter containers)
There is a big container of water for the gardens (and they village says they water twice a week) but the container is at least 100 feet away from our garden… which is a lot to walk when you have to make 5 or more trips carrying 2 full cat litter containers of water!
So we’ll have buff (or, buffer, for me) arms by the end of summer.
On to the exciting/creepy – when we were first planning our garden we decided to grow sweet potatoes, BUT, could not find the little starter spud things for them anywhere. Since Steven is super resourceful, he figured out how to make them at home.
You cut the bottom of a sweet potato off, and put it in a jar so that part of it is above water and part of it is below, like so:
We started the sweet potatoes on 5/8/10
After a few weeks, they start to look really creepy (picture taken 5/29/10):
They grow out these vines called “slips” as well as create roots through the potato.
Slip
Potato roots (and you can see a slip starting to grow)
After the slips grow, you take them out of the potato, put them in water, then the slip grows roots. Then you can plant the slip. We still have a ways to go. Only one potato seems to be a go-getter. The others are lagging.That’s okay – we still need to buy and plant tomatoes and peppers! It will be a late harvest!
I must be getting in to this whole “gardening” thing since I am watching the forecast and hoping for rain (okay, that might be because I don’t want to haul water…).
Any sweet potato recipes to share? I don’t think I have ever had one.
*I am not celebrating National Running Day… as I cannot run.
**Or as I told Holly this weekend, salad. Yes, I am growing salad.
Themocracy
okay that is so totally impressive!!!
Brad planted some flowers and plants when I was away last week, they’re mostly dead now, we are so not ready to plant a food of any sort
Your garden looks great! As for sweet potato recipes, I like them baked with some cinnamon or boiled and mashed with some cinnamon (and butter). I’ve also made sweet potato fries and chips (by slicing them thin with my food processor) and tossing in olive oil and then baking.
Oh, Kim… your ‘salad in the ground’ looks so pretty! I’m envious! And I love the sweet potato pics. Here’s something creepy to add: I have potatoes looking like THAT (pic #2) in my kitchen sometimes ~ if I leave them in the basket too long. LOL I know ~ gross and TMI. 🙂 The green vines are really pretty, actually. (I don’t let mine get like that in the kitchen!)
I’ll have to send you some SP recipes. Love them and eat them frequently – healthy version, not a lot of sugar/butter on them. I add nuts, cilantro, and other yummy stuff.
Sorry about not running today….me neither. Back is out of commission, though moving is less painful than sitting. Go figure.
I’ll send you some of our Orlando rainshowers. We’re definitely moving into summer weather patterns ~ nightly lightning storms. Awesome!
HUGS from Orlando!
How long has your back been out? You okay? I am super behind on reading blogs! Sorry if I missed that on yours!
That potato project reminds me of elementary school experiments we used to do as kids!
Also, based on the wet, wet, WET walk I took with the dog this morning, I’m guessing you also got a bit of rain. =)
Ahhhh, SO cool!!! I can’t wait to see all this stuff as it continues to grow!
So funny, my grandma’s kitchen window used to be lined with four or five of those bad boy sweet potato creations every year. I always thought they looked so funny…
My parents would do the same thing with potatoes and sweet potatoes every year. They have a huge organic garden and I can remember as a kid being out every Good Friday, sometimes in a torrential downpour, putting the potatoes in the ground. I hated it then, but looking back, I miss having the ability to walk down the yard and get any number of fresh vegetables during the summer. I am so jealous of your garden!
Looking good! I’m sure you’ll have a ton of stuff by the end of the summer.
I’m with Robin… I sometimes grow these potato projects in my fridge accidentally.
Sweet potatoes are fantastic, especially sweet potato fries. But I also like them just baked with butter, sugar, and cinnamon or a little maple syrup or plain.
Hey hey! Looks pretty good to me!
I had an onion sprout yesterday in my pantry. That’s about the extent of my gardening.
I LOVE sweet potatoes. I eat them plain and baked but I know a lot of people eat them with butter and syrup. Sweet potato fries are my favorite. The recipe I have has cumin and cinnamon which tastes pretty amazing together.
I love your garden. You know when you first mentioned it I was wondering how you would water it. I’m glad you told us! But what a pain to have to water that way!
Last year we ate tons of lettuce from our garden. The kids would always ask if they could go out and “pick some salad”, which cracked me up!
Love your lil garden… congrats on new plants! 🙂 Isn’t it so exciting when you see stuff actually popping out of the ground?! I think it’s pretty amazing. And I didn’t know that is how to grow potatoes.. That is pretty sweet! But wait… you’ve NEVER had a sweet potato?! HA! Get on it! They are delicious baked for about an hour at 350 with a spoonful of brown sugar on them… or you could do fries with them which are amazing too. (cut them up into lil matchsticks, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes, dry them with a towel, lay them on a cookie sheet & coat with just a tad of EVOO, a lil salt, pepper, & a tbsp of brown sugar… mmm!!!)
YAY for your garden!!!! It is coming along nicely!!! I must admit, the potatoes do look a bit creepy.. I really like mashed sweet potatoes… like regular mashed potatoes but with sweet potatoes (and brown sugar)….
=^..^=
very cool about the sweet potato 🙂 You are going to love getting veggies out of the garden and completely forget about all the water you hauled 😉
everything is looking great! i can’t keep anything alive to save my life, so the fact that you have MULTIPLE foods growing is muy impressive!
Yippee! Your garden is coming along quite nicely. I didn’t plant onions or cucumbers. I love that we’re trying different things! And I’m a huge fan of sweet potato fries. With a mayo/dijon dressing? Whee!
How cool! I think you may have inspired me with my one basil plant. It is pretty cool to grow things you can EAT!
You’ve never had a sweet potato? I didn’t used to be a fan until I discovered sweet potato french fries (which you can make at home…there are a billion recipes online). I also love to throw a sweet potato in the microwave (poke it, wrap in wet paper towel, cook for 6 minutes or so), then cut it open and top with a can of baked beans. Delicious!
Your garden is looking great! I love to make sweet potatoes – some days I just cook them whole, other days I slice them up and put them in the oven for about 30 minutes to have sweet potato chips/fries.
sweet potatoes are my fave. my mom just wraps them in tin foil and bakes them low and slow for an hour at 350. the result is a super soft and flavorful potato. or if you want them crisp like fries, cut them, toss in olive oil/salt/pepper and roast at 400 for 20-30 minutes, tossing once.
I love sweet potatoes! You can cut them up in bite size pieces sprinkle with a little olive oil, rosemary, salt/pepper and either bake on 350 for an 45 min or microwave for 5-8 minutes. Or cut them like fries and bake.
I did the same thing with potatoes that had been in the cupboard too long and had little baby potatoes at the end up the summer, fun!
I love sweet potatoes, just baked with salt and pepper; or do them at fries/wedges with lots of spicy seasonings. I usually do them in a pan on the bbq. Mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potatoe soup, yum yum yum.
Congrats on your garden! It’s looking good! I would have to say once you conquer that potato you should come on over here to Idaho and show this girl how it’s done. LOL! Love it!!
I only knew to start sweet potatoes like that because we used to do that same thing in grade school 🙂 And I cannot believe you’ve never had a sweet potato! I love sweet potato fries and a dolled up sweet potato…you know, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans…the works 🙂 Everything looks great! 🙂
How interesting about the potato! Can’t you just plant the whole potato and let it grow after it springs all thos “slips” or roots?
No recipes for sweet potatoes since I hate to “adulterate” them. I love them plain and simple They are so sweet, why ruin nature?!
I think you can cut part of the potato and plant it too… I am really not sure though!
I have two sweet potato recipes I love — one for a sweet potato-chickpea puree and the other for sweet potato fries. Let me know if you’re interested in either and I will send them along!
Please send me the fry one and the other if you think it could be veganized 😉
That is SO cool!! When I eventually have a garden, Im totally planting sweet potatoes!! 🙂
“my mom told me it’s not a weed if it grows in a straight line right where I happened to plant seeds”
Love it!! Thats totally something I would ask MY mom about.
Your baby onions are so pretty!
Maybe you should get a watering can — I am guessing that if you’re just dumping water on the plants out of a bucket (or cat litter contatiner) that it’s going to be hard to spread the water around.
Another idea: Will they let you put a rain barrel in your garden and hook up a hose?
We were thinking about the rain barrel! We asked and they didn’t know (what we meant?). Maybe now that people have been there awhile we will allow it.
I think we do need a huge watering can!
I am so excited about your garden.
I have a delicious spicy thai sweet potato soup recipe. It’s made with coconut milk so it’s vegan. I’ll dig it out!
Nice garden!
So, this is a great (in my opinion) lentil recipe. I substitute sweet potatoes for the zucchini (much better):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Red-Lentil-Curry-236684
That is so cool! Our tiny garden hasn’t really been growing all that much so far, but I may just try and plant some sweet potatoes.
LOVE this!!!! I tried to find seeds for sweet potatoes…um, hello?? They sprout!!! I’m totally buying some on the way home to do this. We eat sweet potato fries about twice a week. They are like 3 days worth of Vitamin A or something that you’re supposed to have and they are low-calorie and WAY easy to make!! I use just a small amount of olive oil and s&p and that’s it. I’ve tried making them with a few different spices but we are pretty plain-jane with them and like them just as nature intended. They are DELICIOUS. And I am paying about a buck each some days for them and we go through a lot….I am going to start this project TONIGHT! Great idea.
That watering thing is a mess. I’m with you–I am thankful for the rain cause it means just one more day I don’t have to worry about watering my grass and now, my garden.
You can’t get a super-long hose and hook it up to the watering tank? What a pain in the ass.
We grill our sweet potatoes…so delicious! I like mine with salt and pepper but my husband like his with butter and cinnamon…it all about your own tastes!
Your garden is cute! Definitely better than having no garden at all.. like me. 🙁
My favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is to cut them into fries, coat them with coconut oil and cinnamon, then bake in the oven till some start to get dark brown. SO GOOOOOOOD.
Everyone seems to have a garden these days, but sadly not me. Booh!
I love the sweet potato and lentils chili from ED&BV, it’s so good!
Look at you! Let me know when you’re ready for a cobb salad
Arggh! It’s ALIVE! Franken-tater! Heehee. I wonder how many slips you will get out of one sweet potato? Anyway, this recipe sounds strange but these are fan-fricking-tastic. We’ve made them often and love them every time. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Sweet-Potato-Fries-43469
Do you need a watering can?
What we need is one of those huge ass tanks right next to our plot!!!