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Scubafreak’s Schroedinger climbs Mt Kringle:

My Aunt and Uncle flew one way on the Concorde and said it was great. Can’t imagine anyone sneaking off with the hardware though! Maybe a seat cushion or two as a flotation device, but not the Queen’s china or silverware.

Uncle B, you can grow taters in a pot?

It was excellent, thank you very much, Stoaty. I’m glad to hear yours went well also. Especially after the tribulations of the last few months. Maybe your life will settle down a little and they won’t have to kick you out of the country when they learn what you’re really like.

Merry Christmas and happy Boxing Day to you and Uncle B. both.

Or is that Happy Christmas and Merry Boxing Day? I can’t remember which way the toilets flush on that side of the Atlantic.

Hi porknbean – you certainly can!

A lot of people use dustbins (or, if they’re posh, special ‘potato barrels). It’s a great way to get a crop from a small space, like on a patio. The spuds come out nice and clean and there’s no chance of slug damage.

What I did as take much smaller containers (a couple of 10″ pots) put a few inches of soil-less compost in the bottoms, place a single potato in each, cover them up with another couple of inches and put the pots in a frost-free greenhouse. The greenhouse is only necessary at this time of the year, of course, because you’re trying to get new spuds out of season.

As the tuber starts to shoot and grow, you just make sure there are no pests infesting it, keep it watered and fed and every few weeks, as the stem grows taller, add another few inches of compost until, eventually, the pot’s full.

It’s a hit and miss process here as in a really cold or dull winter, you won’t get much of a crop, apparently.

It keeps me amused until the real fun can start in another month or so 🙂

Spoken like a man who got vermiculite in his stocking this year.

It wasn’t vermiculite. It was bloody cat litter! The place is covered in it since a certain feline moved in and took over the running of Badger House.

Feline?

Really?

I’d always thought Weasels were classified as varmints. 🙂

See you on Boxing Day!

Boxing day? Double-ewe tee eff? What the hell is “Boxing Day”? Did the UK instituted some kind of national domestic abuse day? A way to raise awareness by increasing direct exposure?

And I always thought that a vermiculite was a form of transport up or down the side of a mountain.

😉

Weasels? Varmints?

Um…

No, it’s Charlotte who runs Badger House, now. The Weasel just looks on, with a beatific smile as she enjoys my suffering at the paws of The Cat.

As for Boxing Day, it’s one you lost when you got all stroppy about the tea tax – most of the rest of the (vaguely) English speaking world hung on to it, according to wikiwotsit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

In ‘the olden days’ (ie, when I was young) it used to be the day you’d go and visit ol’ granny badger and make sure you ate all her leftover turkey and mince pies.

Sadly, it’s been turned into yet another damned shopping day in the past few years – most of the stores starting their crappy sales, which once would have begun on New Year’s Day.

They call it ‘progress’.

No, it’s Charlotte who runs Badger House, now. The Weasel just looks on, with a beatific smile as she enjoys my suffering at the paws of The Cat.

Oh. So it’s basically like any other kind of relationship. Gotcha. I beg forgiveness for my error.

As for Boxing Day, it’s one you lost when you got all stroppy about the tea tax

Think of it this way… Had it been an unfair BEER tax, we might have beaten the British army here, and then invaded, setting your fair country to ruin – your queen could then have ended up as Paris Hilton.

I think we all can agree the one you have is perfectly fine. 🙂

They call it ‘progress’.

Yes. They usually do, don’t they. I suspect they do that because “the ruination of all things good and decent” a) doesn’t play as well amongst focus groups and b) takes too long to say.

Seriously folks… It was only TEA…

We have lost our balls since then. Lookit the taxes we are putting up with now and they are saying it is not enough.
*fantasizing about throwing the lot of them in a harbor somewhere and the idiots who keep voting them in*

Awww..Charlotte put some litter in your stocking….er, wait, she might be trying to tell you something. That might not be a good thing.

I am intrigued about the taters. What soil-free compost are you using, why not soil, and what do you feed them? I lummee some taters and when ‘the messiah’ brings some Mugabe-style rule here, I won’t do without.

Mr. Beasn bought some bins to raise worms in. In my basement. Worms. I think the two of you would get on quite well.

scubafreak, your Schroedinger is verra handsome. That prevents me from saying he needs an all out ass-kicking.
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No more tinsel. You just know that is what set his eyes to ‘cross’.

Mugabe-style rule
I won’t go without my Diet Pepsi. How can I raise it in pots?

The only Boxing Day here abouts….is for the ears only.
Some call it abuse.

Poor ol’ Christmas has been ruined and turned into a flim
flam scam of great extent.
Worms and potatoes could be the bane of those who intend
to bring about a Mugabe type environment.
In the meantime…keep yerself locked and loaded, with
powder dry.

*fantasizing about throwing the lot of them in a harbor somewhere and the idiots who keep voting them in*

Now you know you can’t do that…

There are laws against polluting the oceans…

Princess Bernie – I made Compromise Cake a short while ago. It was a major hit. I may have to make it again soon. (I might add chopped walnuts.) It was worth all the work and worry. And this was the first time I made something from scratch. It was fun. And the joy I got from everyone enjoying it – blissful.

PnB – Ya should have seen him prancing around with one of my Partridge ornaments. He was SOOOO proud of himself – “I GOTZ DA BIRDY, I GOTZ DA BIRDY!!!!”

It’s going to take me HOURS to straighten out the tree…. LOL

Happy Boxing Day, Folks!
Uncle B, I plan to try potato growin’ now.
Weas, that is one awesome gift! I guess you are a match made in heaven. Miss you!

Musli, I’m going to be making that recipe in a couple of days. It looks very tasty.
I made ‘apricot bars’ and ‘apple/caramel bars’ from a Paula Deen magazine. The husband and family gave the apricot bars two thumbs up. The MIL liked the apple/caramel bars. I don’t have time now, but will post the recipe later.

Oh, and from reading the hostages, I wish I knew ya in person, I woulda made Santa stop by.

That’s a great gift!

Back around ’85, my family took advantage of an awesome promotion: sail the QE2 one way and get a free flight on British Airways the other way, OR Concorde for the price of a regular BA ticket.

Travel on two icons for the price of one and an eighth. They even handed out Cuban cigars on the flight. Those were the days.

*scratching, farting dust and yelling at the neighbor kids*

Growing taters in a pot, redneck version: stack old tires up and fill with soil, and rooted taters.

You didn’t think we used those old tires for just holding the roofs down on our trailers did you? Tater Tires we calls ’em.

Hi porknbean – not sure what composts are available in the USA but the best stuff to use in pots (I find) is a peat-based soil-less blend. I just had a quick look to see what’s on offer in a US garden centre (sorry, center 🙂 )and something like Scotts Miracle-Gro might do the trick.

A look at the user reviews, however, suggest you have the same problem we do – that the big companies are forever changing their potting mix formulae, so it might be best to take advice from a trusted garden supplier. But that’s the type of material you want, anyway.

Potatoes are a ‘hungry’ crop though and even if the bag says the mix contains enough feed for 6-8 weeks growth, don’t believe it! Use a liquid fertiliser too, one with a high potassium (potash) balance (tomato fertiliser can be good, or one intended for flowering plants – try to get one that has added trace elements, too). The occasional spray with liquid seaweed helps, as well, but that’s by no means essential.

I’d start by applying it after about 3-4 weeks, every time you water.

If you want to do this for a summer crop and use a proper potato barrel (you can get these mail order or at some garden centres)then much the same process applies, though (in my opinion) you will get better quality and flavour from growing potatoes in the ground and using natural materials like farmyard or pelleted chicken manure or, one of my favourites, blood, fish and bone.

The only other thing to consider is whether to use ‘seed potatoes’ or just whatever you have kicking round the bottom of your potato bin. You can act actually grow spuds just from discarded potato peelings (as long as they have eyes in them) and you’ll get a perfectly good crop, but you risk virus diseases building up, especially if you save a few potatoes for seed use every year. You also don’t get to choose the variety you grow.

Let me know if I can burble any more.

You can see why her Ladyship finds this ever so fascinating, can’t you… 😉 ?

Ha! Just seen Allen’s post – and yes, we do that here, too. Works a treat!

Uncle B, we could probably overwhelm things here with crop info and such. Of course you have to face the Weasel Wrath. But what the hell. I have a variety of food and alcohol potential plants, vines, and what not at my “estate.”

What I find interesting is that one can plant different species of things that contribute to the health of the garden, vineyard, etc. I have found that there are many plantings that are conducive to Ladybugs which are a great natural pesticide.

I use composted chicken manure in the garden, period. For the vineyard I plant turnips between the rows and then till them in, with a top dressing of the aforementioned chicken compost.

Woohoo! This sounds like a new deal: The Weasel Garden

Ah, g’wan witchu. You guys talk gardening. I’m far too inebriated and lazy to take proper care of my own blog over the holidays, so you might as well talk amongst yourselves.

Anyhow, it keeps Uncle B occupied while I plot to take over the world.

That’s sweet of you, PnB! I appreciate the thought very much.

That’s really interesting, Allen, I try to avoid the excesses of the ‘organic’ movement, but, like you, I do think there’s a balance to be struck and that, though I happily use ‘chemical’ fertilisers (as if all fertilisers weren’t chemicals!) the naturally occurring ones do tend to work better.

That’s why I was particularly thrilled that her Ladyship had bought me a giant bottle of seaweed extract, for Christmas. It’s damned hard to say just what it is that seaweed extract does, but it seems to make plants hardier, more disease and pest resistant and it increases crop flavour.

Certainly agree about ladybugs (ladybirds, over here), too.

But a Weasel Garden? Nah… one’s enough 😉

Seaweed extract probably smells a bit better than a dead perch in every pot.

😛

Try fish guts, cheaper and your roses will love you for it.

Thank you, Uncle B, for the info….I am taking notes. I’ve been wanting to grow potatos but it is taking some time turning the clay into a manageable vegetable garden. The husband built a compost bin behind the garage at the end of summer, so hopefully we will have some good material by spring (already has leaves, grass clippings, lots of table scraps).
Fish guts, huh? Hmm…probably would be easier to come by than chicken manure since the husband gets plenty of fishing time. Though, I haven’t looked for chicken poo at the garden center. Yet.
*note to self…put seaweed extract on list…I remember hearing about it before*

What a nice thought – When Weasel takes over the world there will be a potato barrel in every greenhouse and chicken manure in every potting!

I am a terrible gardener but I do love cooking with fresh vegetables… and sometimes not cooking them! The best in the world is picking cherry tomatoes hot in the summer sun, washing them slightly, and then tossing them in a paper bag with a little salt….and then sitting in the shade to eat every one. A fresh leaf of basil for dessert is always refreshing after a bag of tomatoes too 🙂

My God! My weasel emoticon turned YELLOW!

Oooooh! Gardening! I’m presently collecting 5 gal buckets for tomatoes. I only had one plant last year, but it growed and growed.

This year, look out.

Maybe I should save a couple for potatoes. Hmmmmmmmmm…

The soil up here in the frozen tundra of Colorado is unbelievably fantastic for gardening. Just two minor problems: No water (Great American Desert. Remember?), and a growing season measured in minutes (last year, growing season started promptly at 1:05pm on July 3rd, and ended shortly before dusk that same day).