I just finished ordering seed potatoes for Perennial Favorites Open House. We’re going to have interesting varieties including everyone’s favorite potato, Yukon Gold, plus Purple Majesty and Mountain Rose, two varieties bred in and for Colorado by Dr. David Holm. It’s kind of fun to think about growing potatoes again. It’s been years since I planted them on purpose, but I almost always have a plant or two come up in the compost pile, and I even harvest a few potatoes from those volunteers. There are three compost piles here, the active one, the middle one, and the old one. I’m a passive composter, I don’t do the work that would make the pile heat up and compost quickly, but I’m also a patient composter, so I don’t mind waiting a few years to have usable compost.
The potatoes, and other plants that come up in the compost pile, have taught me quite a bit about what certain vegetables need. The compost piles never get watered, so anything that germinates in them is on its own. Last year, after a dry spring, we had a very wet July. It rained and rained. It saved the Greenhorn Valley from turning into a dustbowl. Then, August 8, the rain stopped, as if the spigot to the clouds in the sky had been turned off. We didn’t get another drop of usable precipitation for the rest of the growing season. Despite that strange drought-monsoon-drought pattern, pumpkins germinated in the compost pile. And winter squash, too. The old pile was covered with winter squash vines and produced about ten delicata-type squash. The middle pile was covered with pumpkins—we harvested over 15 medium sized (just right for sitting on the porch at Halloween) pumpkins. There was also a lovely datura that grew and bloomed in the old compost. One potato plant grew on the west side of the old compost pile and produced a few little potatoes that were delicious steamed with green beans.
In addition to learning something about how certain vegetables can grow with limited—but concentrated—rainfall, I was also reminded that there are vegetables that are not loved by deer. That was a good reminder because I’d been frustrated trying to grow tomatoes in an unfenced area. Deer love tomato plants! That is so wrong, an affront to all I know about deer. Tomato plants have smelly, slightly fuzzy leave, the sort of leaves deer are supposed to dislike! Tomato leaves are even slightly poisonous. But still the deer munch on them. The only tomatoes I got last year came from ones I grew in containers on the patio. So far the deer haven’t visited that area.
Because of the compost pile, I saw how the deer ignored the pumpkins and the squash and the potatoes. (hmm, potatoes and tomatoes are closely related, yet deer like one and not the other?)They never bother my asparagus plants either. There is hope for those of us who garden where deer roam. I remember advice about growing corn and keeping it safe from raccoons: plant corn in the middle of pumpkin and squash vines, and the raccoons will ignore it. Still, I dream about an 8’ tall fence….
I’m sure everyone reading this has a slightly different story to relate about deer and their vegetable garden. I hope to gather more information about this as time goes by, and I’m happy to hear from you about your experience with critters and edibles.
We’re buying our potatoes from a Colorado source called the Potato Farm. They grow their potatoes following all the dictates of the Certified Organic Program. You can read about them here: http://www.potatogarden.com/index.html
