Planting potatoes

It would probably be easiest to just go to the supermarket to get potatoes, because so far I've used a lot of potting soil and that's not cheap!

So these actually started out growing inside the kitchen drawer.  I put them in soil and we went on Spring Break.  And look what sprouted when we came home!  I actually had this in the garage next to the glassed window.  It's my new "winter" spot for my plants :-)

I thought I had a photo of what those potatoes looked like before I threw them into the soil, but nope! It's so ugly with these tendrils sticking out.  Ha ha!

In the meantime, the daffodils are not looking so great.  It's been warm and then cold again. Poor flowers!

Another week or so has gone by and....  OMG, they are growing! And obviously leaning towards the light/window:

It's finally warm enough to take them outside.  The potatoes are actually in a basket that sits on a plant holder on wheels.  Yes, I was actually thinking about how to move them around.  Ha ha!

Another layer of soil added, but there is this one plant that's growing quicker than the others.  So that's the one sticking out of the soil:

And as we wait, the Bradford Pear flowers are blooming.  I really do love these.  It always reminds me of our first big tree in front of our home in Broken Arrow, OK:

This year, the flowers were quite sparse on the Bradford Pear trees.  Again, must be this strange weather we are having right now.  I mean, last night was a low of 33F?!

I'm not sure who planted these tulips, but I know it's not me!  I love these colors though, so vibrant and they are sort of just scattered around the yard.  Love them!

There's also these mix of white and orange daffodils.  I know I planted the yellow ones. I'm guessing the previous owner planted these:

And probably these too. So cute! Love the shape on these:

Hmm, they actually have 6 petals.  Everytime I draw flowers on paper, it's normally 4 or 5 petals.  I guess I can squeeze in 6 now.  Ha ha!

Potatoes are still growing!

And I'm happy to say, the peonies I bought last year are also starting to sprout!  This is what happened to the one last year - it's dead. HA!

And here's the little baby one that's growing right beneath it.  I can't wait to see it bloom.  I have 2 on the side of the house that are "single petal".  I hope they get enough sun on this side of the house:

And the hydrangeas are also sprouting back up.  Except we have too many of them everywhere!

See what I mean?

I actually dug some up to bring it to school - to be put in the school's planters.  Made some sort of dent to the pile:

There were also hostas everywhere, and OMG, what a chore to thin those out!

But awww, look how pretty the planters at school turned out! 

I'm glad I bought some pansies and some of those purple cabbage stuff to fill out the rest of the planters.  A little splash of color!  I hope the hydrangeas take and don't limp over.  It's going to be another cold 33F tonight.  Sheesh!

And one of  my plants on the window sill was getting too big and creeping all over the place.  So I decided to hang it up.  Yup, it's just a long stick across the top - between the two shelves for now.  Ha ha!

I of course, managed to break a few strands of the Wandering Jew, but it only took a day for new roots to grow.  Wow!  

This is easier to regrow than I had expected.  Of course, I already am thinking of another project.  He he...! I did buy a glass cutter a few months back.  Maybe this is a project that the boys can help me with :-D

I'm not sure if this bird feeder/waterer is salvageable though.  I'm so sad because I really liked this one!

I left it out this entire winter, thinking it was concrete.  Well, nope!  No wonder it was so light and cheaper than I had expected because if it was made of concrete, it would have been a lot heavier (and most likely more expensive!).  Well, now I know. Thankfully the 2 birdies are still ok (those are probably concrete).  So I'm going to have to think of something else for them.

And look, this peony plant is also doing really well. 

Oh boy, I'm only thinking about this now.  I wonder if it survived the cold weather last night??!

The potato plants are thriving!!

Looks like we can cover it with one more layer of soil.  But since my basket is only so deep, I managed to use some leftover Amazon boxes to increase the height of the box:

And into the garage is stays overnight!  I'm not exactly sure when we can actually start harvesting the potatoes.  Guess I'll have to read up on it some more.  But wow, sure a lot of work for a small batch of potatoes.  Like I said, the soil that I've been using has been more expensive than what I can buy potatoes for in the supermarket!!  This is the first time my potatoes have actually grown this much.  I tried doing it in CA when we lived there (in the back yard) but it didn't pan out as well.  So, we'll just have to wait and see :-D