June 10, 2013
Because I covered the potato plants w/more mulch instead of just trusting the process, most of the potato plants died. So, today I took the opportunity to go ahead and dig around to see what was left. This is what I harvested. This is from about half of the plants. I am going to make MANY LARGE notes to myself to show quite a bit more patience next year!
I also harvested A LOT of beautiful lettuce, as it is getting hot and I don’t want it to bolt.
The kale is looking pitiful. I got this harvested and I am going to plant some more this week but I think all hope may be lost for getting more kale until the fall.
I harvested some more peas as well – enough for each child to have a small pod or half of a large one.
I am linking up to Daphne’s Dandelions this week for Harvest Monday.
We had two days of rain this weekend and ended up with just shy of 5″ altogether. The corn and some of the tomato plants needed to be propped up a little but other than that, the garden was unfazed. The mulch just soaked it up!
The rain did affect another part of our lives, however. After finding no where to get out of the rain, the poor, soaked dog was itching to go out and play. As soon as the sun came out after two days, she decided her playmates would be…the chickens. Which resulted in our first chicken loss…and subsequently, dog loss.
My mother-in-law came and took the dog. I was very glad to be rid of her. I was overwhelmed with having a dog, frankly. However, when my MIL found someone to take the dog, my husband wanted to take her back. He figures we’re just going to have to start over again with another dog – might as well just keep the one we have. If she kills another one, she is definitely out, but he wants to give her another try.
Previous to this incident, she got into the chicken tunnel quite a bit but never messed with the chickens – she just wanted to play with their new toy. When they would free range she never bothered them at all once we trained her not to. I was never worried about her around the chickens. And I think her killing one was fully because she was going stir crazy. However, now I’m very nervous that she will do it again.
We are going to build her a ‘run’/kennel where she will have plenty of room to roam. The plan is to put her in it when we are inside the house and let her out whenever we’re out and about so we can make sure she will not mess with the chickens.
What do you think? Do you think giving her another shot is foolish? I DO NOT want to lose another chicken, for sure. But she has a great temperament and obeys pretty well for being so young – so I hear where my husband is coming from. Anyone kept a dog after it killed a chicken? What are your experiences?
Gardening Without... 
What a nice bowl of potatoes. Greens too. Maybe the potatoes were just ready and it coincided with you putting the mulch on. Some may pop back up for you later. I am still finding potatoes popping up all over my garden after moving my soil around building new beds this past winter.
thx. our first year of potatoes was certainly not a flop…we were able to get back about what we put in…we learned A LOT…and are brainstorming how to do better next year (mainly how to keep the bermuda grass out. we put the potato patch in a damp spot away from the rest of the garden – the bermuda grass is taking advantage 😛
Never had a dog kill any hens before so not sure what to say. I guess I would monitor closely and see if it can work. Your potatoes and lettuces look delicious.
thx. btw, your blog is the first gardening blog I ever found. i went back to the beginning and read ALL of your posts a couple of years ago when I first started wanting to garden year round 🙂
We have three large adult dogs and we’ve been very nervous about one of them killing a chicken. My husband says once a dog kills a chicken they will always kill chickens. He didn’t have chickens growing up but his family had a dog that would kill the neighbors chickens. I don’t know that all dogs can be lumped into the same category based on one experience though. I would say that if she’s young and you are willing to invest some time and patience then maybe it’ll be okay. A kennel or run is definately a great plan though for now. Good luck.