Welcome to my zone 9 garden. My roots are deeply planted in the sandy soil of sub-tropical central Florida, where the summers are long and hot, but the rest of the year is paradise!

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Big and the Small of it

As all of you veggie growers know . . . sometimes you get lucky with your crops and sometimes you don't. 

Sometimes you get a plentiful harvest . . . and sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you can grow an extra large veggie . . . and sometimes you get a paltry looking specimen. 

And, so it goes with my garden . . .

This past winter we enjoyed watching our super-sized Georgia collard green grow and grow and grow  . . . 

We ate off of another collard green plant while we enjoyed the beauty of this beastly-sized collard in the garden. Oops, when I took this photo I didn't notice the teenaged Lubber grasshopper on the gigantic leaf. He wouldn't dare touch my prized collard! Would he?

and then there's the other side of the coin . . .

One of the potato plants that we planted on Valentine's day died back. Hhmm, that shouldn't happen until sometime late in June, so I decided to take a look to see if, just perhaps they were ready to harvest early.


And, what do I find? Two miniature dime-sized little potatoes. Definitely not enough to fill one's hungry belly. Oh well, I can only hope the other potatoes still in the ground can go the distance. 

And, that's the BIG and the small of it in my May garden.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How very, very true! Your itty-bitty potatoes made me smile . . . and your collards made my mouth water. I don't know why I've never tried growing them. I think because whenever we were given home grown greens in the past it took forever to get the sand off of them. Is that a problem for you?

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Oh Susan ~ Those potatoes cracked me up. They look perfect until you see them next to the dime.

Gardening is always a learning experience. One of patience, hope and moving along, as in life.

Love and hugs to you ~ FlowerLady

Leslie Kimel said...

Wow, that's a nice looking collard plant! We never have really good luck with potatoes. This year Rob didn't even want to plant any since our crop last year was so paltry. But I enjoy our little baby-sized potatoes and I think we ought to try again next year!

Susan said...

Hi Eli and Lorraine...I have to agree that I got a bit of a chuckle out of those potatoes, too. What else can you do!

Eli...I've never had a problem with sand in the leaves but I do put down a nice layer of hay mulch beneath them, and as you eat up the stalk the leaves get further and further away from the ground, too.

Hi Leslie...You definitely should try again next year. In the past I planted the little fingerling potatoes that you purchase in Publix, and I got a beautiful crop. But I've not had as much luck with the small red potatoes.

Have a wonderful weekend ladies!

Unknown said...

My collards were humongous this year.Still eating off of them. I didn't notice the lubber 'til you mentioned it.I still want to try the potatoes the way you grow them.

Deb said...

WOW that is some wonderful looking collard greens you have, I'm surprised the Lubber didn't invite 50 of his friends for a feast, last year those bugs destroyed my entire spring planting.

Those little potatoes are so cute.

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