Tuber time

Our first sun chokes were planted on the boulevard, in a raised bed build on top of the lawn.  The site is subject to wind from the west and midday shade from the huge trees that line our street.  There was no opportunity cost to planting them in that location - we were not short of tubers in the other areas that were available - so it was no great mischief that they didn't thrive.  They grew to all of three feet tall (guessing) and were often limp, probably a result of the wind.  Meanwhile, their relatives that were lucky enough to be planted in sunnier places on the leeward side of the house have grown well over six feet tall and look chronically perky.  This morning I dug up the boulevard sun chokes, in recognition of their inferior performance and out of curiosity about what is happening underground.

Things were happening.  Most of the roots had developed a few small tubers.  After being pulled off the roots, they filled a single layer of a square food container (picture a Ziploc 500ml food saver).  Not much, possibly not even quite ready to eat (the tubers are said to be tastier after a hard frost or two), but I hope to give them a try tomorrow.  Hope they don't require peeling; there would be almost nothing left to eat.

The backyard sun chokes are finally, in the third week of September, indicating that they might flower before they freeze to death.  All summer I have been poking at their tips and finding infinite layers of leaves; now many of them have a tiny green disk like a sunflower, only a thousandth of the size.  Lately, I've had to reach up and bend the top of the stalk down toward me to see what's happening.  Until now, no flowers but usually a ladybug party.  We have ladybugs all over the garden this summer, like never before, but nowhere do they look so comfortable as they do in the sun choke leaves.

backyard sun chokes

Curiosity will drive us to try dig up at least one of these plants from each remaining location before winter.  Then we have to memorize the quality of the food until spring so we can compare and see if it's worth leaving them in the ground all winter.  I have little doubt that the seed tubers should be left in the ground, but we don't know about food.  We enjoy eating freshly dug parsnips in the spring.  Wouldn't mind having another crop like that.





All the potatoes were dug up yesterday.  The tops had mostly turned yellow, shriveled, and hurled themselves into the straw.  No further growth expected here.  The haul was okay, but really could have been better.  I expected them to go deeper; most of the potatoes were quite close to the surface.  I even went through the bed a second time this morning with a shovel, rather hoping I had missed more than a few.  I had missed just a few.  But, it's good enough.  We have probably as many potatoes as we will want to eat before they begin to deteriorate (we don't have ideal storage conditions) and I managed to stab a mere three tubers during the harvest process (my mutilation rate is normally much higher than that).  Soon the rattlesnake bean tower will be dismantled and I can go in and get the rogue potatoes from that bed.

State of the garden - Labour Day weekend

Pea vines have turned brown, potato plants have keeled over, and a few squash vines have been chopped up for compost.  At the same time, scarlet runner vines continue to grow lush dark leaves and bright blossoms, parsnips are having a spurt of their own, and Jerusalem artichokes reach skyward, showing no sign of flowering yet.  Life cycles are all over the place.

Bee balm, borage, sunflowers and clover continue to nourish "our" bees.  Wasps seem to be more plentiful every day, hunting among the vegetables for prey for their young or chewing on the greenhouse wall to furnish their nests.  Delicate cabbage moths flutter about in twos and threes, pretty if only we can forget for a moment what they do to our crucifers.  Dragonflies hover, pace, and dart about within their invisible boundaries.  Haven't seen what they are eating.  It's a lively place.

September 2 brought the dreaded phrase "frost warning" back into our life.  Although Lethbridge was not mentioned in the report, there was a warning for Calgary, Okotoks, Magrath and Cardston.  Hard to see how it would be any different here, and the forecasted low was 2C (with "feels like -2C").  We survived unscathed and seasonal overnight temperatures have returned.  Sigh of relief.  I didn't think this would come so soon.