Towering

Towering

Mid April and Early May 2015

It is  May 11, and the rains have come to spend the weekend. We had been watering during a dry spell, but this is a crucial time for garden plants, and even our well water is not as good as rain. But, watering has kept things going, including the strawberry plot that Richard has been tending assiduously.

Plants have been growing well, each day surprising me by how much taller they stretch toward the sun, or how much farther their “arms” stretch to the sides, ready to drink in the rain. There has been much to drink in over the weekend, and I look forward to how much more quickly they will grow.

                   

Brussels Sprouts on April 13

                                      

Cabbages and Broccoli on May 7

 Japanese Giant Red Mustard on May 7

 Peas on May 7

Among the growing things are the potato towers. For some years, I have wanted to create these. The plan has been to have an airy “vessel” into which dry materials (straw, dried grass, compost, etc.) would go. On top of the first layer I would place potato “seeds” - pieces with “eyes”. Layers of dry material would be periodically placed on top as potato plants grow taller.

My plan has always been to put a row of potato towers in one raised bed each year. When it would become time to harvest potatoes (after the plants had grown tall through successive layers and started to die back, indicating the readiness of tubers), I would simply pick up the towers and let all the layers fall out. I would sift through to find the little treasures called new potatoes and plunk them cleanly into a bucket. Then I would spread out the material, which would become mulch for other plants in the bed that year, and then compost to enrich that bed's soil later.

Doesn't this sound like a good, tidy plan?  Let's hope it works. I finally get to try it out this year!

One reason I had not succeeded in carrying out the plan in previous years was lack of something to use for the “vessels”, or cages.  I had considered various possibilities, but never made it happen.

I am not one to run out and buy lots of new fencing, which is expensive, for a project like this. So, I was looking for something I could salvage.

A trip into the barn had not yielded what I needed (see “Archaeology”.)

 

But on another day I walked down to the barn and my eyes caught on a rusty old thing at the edge of the woods. It was an old pig farrowing crate that we used to use for transporting lambs to the butcher. It could not be used for potato towers in any way – I was considering other garden uses for it, letting my mind flow around possibilities. A support for some kind of vining crop? Covered with the right thing, it could even become attractive.

Then I saw it, what I had been waiting for all these years. Leaning against the old pen, almost invisible in its airiness, was a rusty roll of woven wire fencing.

I felt like an antique dealer who had found a hidden gem at a yard sale – or the dump.

I tossed it into my wheelbarrow and rolled it up to the gardens, then plopped it down onto a strip of lawn. It was all tangled with dried-up vines, stalks and leaves. I wondered if it was tangled up with itself, too. But, I've always loved a good untangling puzzle, so I brought out a pair of wire cutters and set to work.

 

I found the overlapping part and managed to unhook the fencing from itself and roll it out on the grass. Wow – plenty for me to use!

Here was the question, though:  why did Richard not have a use for this? He knew I had been searching for this kind of thing, so why did he not mention this old roll of fencing? Surely he didn't have plans for it.

I set to work with the wire cutters. I needed four potato towers. I snipped away until I had the right lengths for four towers – no – five towers! I decided to save the fifth section for some future use, as yet unknown.

I took the first section, stood it up, and bent it around in a circle. Then I wrapped exposed wires of one side around the wires of the other side to secure the whole thing. Voila! A potato tower vessel, as simple as that. I made three more.

I really cannot describe how elated I was to finally have potato tower vessels. Even more, I cannot describe the elation I felt after having made them myself, from something I found, into something useful. Resourcefulness is a good feeling.

Meanwhile, I had cut up my potatoes and set them in the sun to dry.

 

Aren't they beautiful? They are called Magic Molly potatoes.

I was so excited to find this variety – deep purple from skin to center. Beautiful color, beautiful health, and a really cool name. A real hippie name.

I spread some straw on part of Raised Bed #2 and set a wire cage on top of it. My first potato tower! There it was!!

 

Then I set up the other three on straw along that bed. The Dandelions would be taken out as other things needed the space, and I would use the leaves and roots as I harvested them. For the meantime, their bright green leaves and glowing yellow flower heads decorated the bed around the potato towers.

 

I then put potato pieces on the straw, spacing them. I felt like I was tucking pets into a cozy new home.

After I finished that, I put another layer of straw on top of the potato pieces. I rounded up various sturdy, tall things I had saved up (reusing again – more things saved for a future unknown purpose.) These I pushed into the ground on either side of each tower, then tied them on, making the towers safer for windy days.

 

And, there we have it!

After all these years, there were four potato towers standing tall, with Magic Mollies tucked in!!

Now, I'm stopping here to explain something:

 

All of the time I was figuring out and constructing these things (from the time I tossed the roll of fencing into the wheelbarrow), I thought of Mary Jane Butters and all she has done for me and other women.

Mary Jane is an intelligent, creative, resourceful, inventive ranch woman from Idaho who created Mary Jane's Farm Magazine* (which I subscribe to) and the Farmgirl Sisterhood** (which I keep meaning to re-join) and she is the author of several books (I have most of them.) She not only provides education and inspiration for women to do everything from building a shed to needlework to taking care of a cow to repairing things to making great food in cast iron to camping skills to reusing things (and on and on), she also provides forums for all of us to share what we've learned. Best of all, she makes everything seem possible, or, rather, shows us that it is.

Making potato towers from old fencing may not seem like much of a project to some people, but it's the resourcefulness of it that is most important to me. Anything different that I learn and do is a big deal for a woman raised in an era when tasks were still pretty gender specific. I would love to have learned, in my younger days, how a car works, how to change a flat, how to use woodworking tools, how to build a tree house, or how to build a miniature working Ferris Wheel with an Erector Set.

But, none of that happened. So, everything I learn or figure out  during my adult years is like passing another class with flying colors, or earning a badge (which, by the way, you can do through the Farmgirl Sisterhood), or climbing another rung of a ladder I couldn't use when I was younger.

And what had my husband planned to do with that old rusty roll of fencing?

Get Rid of It!

Yes! He was going to take it to the metal recycler! 

At least that's another form or recycling, but, still ….

When he saw me working with that rusty, vine-tangled fence on the ground, clipping away, I said, “It will be good,, but it doesn't have to be pretty!” to which he replied, “That's good, because it's not!” (pretty, that is.)

Moving forward to early May:

My Magic Molly potatoes have not sent up shoots, but they haven't rotted, either, and still have vital, purple eyes. They need rain, and I have not watered them as I should (all those other things in Life distracting me.)

So, I removed most of the straw from the towers. A kind, generous neighbor had given us this pile of brown gold …

...so I put a layer of it on top of the potatoes in each tower. Then I watered them and put most of the straw back in, loosely. I felt like I was taking care of my pets again.

 Straw-seed potato-compost-straw sandwich

Grow, Magic Mollies, grow!

After the rains, I hope to see dark green, thick, crinkled potato leaves poking through the straw. I will reward them with more layers of compost and other dry stuff periodically. I want to see those plants tower up as high as they can get in their homes I built for them!

Meanwhile, Richard and I have more plants to put out after the rains subside ...

 

(For years, I have climbed to the top of fire towers whenever I have had the opportunity. Then, I found out that, for years, Mary Jane Butters had a job in a fire tower!)

*    www.maryjanesfarm.org

**  www.farmgirlsisterhood.org