Friday, September 30, 2011

Digging Potatoes

Every fall the grandchildren go up the hill to Grandpa Tim's to dig potatoes. Grandpa Tim is a dedicated gardener. You have to be to garden in Anchorage. It's hard work. The growing season is short. Our extra hours of summer sunshine here in the north help grow super-sized cabbages and pumpkins, but the lack of heat makes it impossible to grow any hot weather crops (beans, most corn, melons, peppers, etc.). You can grow tomatoes, but it requires extra work and the payoff usually isn't stellar.

I've tried vegetable gardening. More than once. It was not a happy experience. The moose eat the peas and trample the carrots. The slugs leave a slime trail on the broccoli and drill holes in the kohlrabi. The potatoes suffer from potato scab. I stick to flowers now, but I applaud Grandpa Tim for keeping at it with food crops. He grew up on farm and he takes his gardening seriously. This is great for the grandchildren.

Jake and Bentley mined for potatoes twice this week with Grandpa Tim. Both Bentley and Grandpa Tim commented on Jake's overexuberance with the shovel--dirt and rocks go everywhere. The boys had a great time.

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