Spring Done Sprung

Is it gorgeous outside or what? Charlotte is a city of flowering trees. The daffodils, tulips and the little purple ground cover flowers are going crazy. Even one of the azalea bushes is blooming in my yard. Saturday morning at Renfrow’s hardware, people were buying tomato plants. I was sorely tempted to do so as well. The ones in the greenhouse are still a little too small to leave their mother.

Potatoes have been a major failure in our garden since we moved in from Waxhaw. Every year visions of new potatoes dance through my head and like old Charlie Brown trying to kick that football, I give it another try. This year a new approach is being used. It is a hybrid of a few methods that were mentioned in this month’s Organic Gardening magazine.

Mitchell Hales, a brick mason, was kind enough to donate a bag that came full of sand from Home Depot. He had used the sand of course. About three 4” slashes were made near the bottom to facilitate drainage. About 4” of garden soil and compost and play sand were put on the bottom. The ph tested at 7.2 which is way too high for potatoes. A little sprinkling of sulfur was put on this and another thin layer of soil was added. The seed potatoes were spaced about 10” apart all around the surface of the soil and another 3” of soil was added. This also was sprinkled lightly with sulfur. Pray for potatoes.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/