How $.68 Cost Me $57

I did take the afternoon off today and I'm glad I did.  I stopped by an organic farm stand that I visit from time to time.  And what do I find?  Fricking fingerling seed potatoes!  I searched high and low for them weeks ago and gave up.  Well I couldn't leave without buying some.  5 red fingerling seed potatoes set me back a whole $.68:

 

Then I stopped by my favorite local nursery, Vaiuso Farms, searching for a replacement tomato plant for the Hillbilly I killed yesterday.  You know I couldn't just buy one $.75 tomato plant.  But I did manage to limit myself to just under $25 (not counted towards the aforementioned $57).  From the bottom left up -- large leaf Italian basil, Red Rubin basil, parsley, a Black Prince tomato, Pesto Perpetuo basil, lemon thyme, and a buttload of marigolds:

I want to highlight the Pesto Perpetuo basil because I haven't seen it before.  I love the variegated leaves and from what I read it's a non-flowering basil.  I've never heard of such a thing:

From the moment I bought the $.68 worth of seed potatoes I brain-stormed non-stop about where I could plant them.  I didn't have a single empty large container sitting at home, so it was either wait until I harvest the radishes and beets and plant them in the raised veggie bed (not ideal for a bunch of reasons, but mainly because it's only about 10 inches deep), forgo the Black Prince tomato I just bought and plant in its intended container (kind of small and not likely to yield as many fingerling potatoes as I would want), plant in the ground somewhere (but then have to dig them up--ugh), or buy some new containers.  Guess which option I went with?  I headed home, dropped off my plants, picked up VPH (now home from school), and off we went to my favorite place to buy containers, Ocean State Job Jot.  $57 later I have four new pots that blend nicely with two already in the driveway area:

 

But the two blue ones on the left were shaded by the bush to the left of them, so I grabbed my trusty Felco pruners and down it came.  I'm sure it will grow back if we don't dig the stump out (it has once before), but VPH is happy because now it won't be attacking him when he gets in and out of his car: 

 

This is what it looked like yesterday with the huge unknown bush intact and single pots:

I'm thinking the red fingerling potatoes will be spread out between at least three of the new containers, one is just too small, but oh so cute.  Just in case you don't know how to make your seed potatoes stretch a little further, here's a little info session for ya.  You can cut them into smaller pieces, but each has to have at least 2 eyes.  There are at least five eyes visible in this photo: 

 

The same potato sliced in two with plenty of eyes on each piece:

 

All five potatoes sliced in half and drying out to be planted tomorrow:

 

Some people say it's not necessary to let the sliced potatoes "cure," but I decided to error on the side of caution.  So that's how my $.68 purchase cost me $57.  I promise I will not go buy any more containers this year.  Really.  Well, probably.

Comments

[Katie/Gardenpunk]

Expensive habit!

[Heather's Garden]

No shit. I really have to stop.

[mummer]

Double goody! ?Fingerling AND Red Skin potatoes for Thanksgiving?

[Jennah - MD]

I adore lemon thyme. It smells so wonderful! Mine gets pretty big. In fact, I just took about 12 freezer bags full of it to work last week to give away! Just planted a lime basil this year as well.

I like the single flowering marigolds as well. Always have a harder time finding them, though!

The extra money doesn't count. You HAD to buy them. Plus, it'll pay off if you harvest a bunch. Worth it!

[Heather's Garden]

Jennah -- Lemon thyme may be my favorite herb. Every single person who has come through the garden has loved the smell of it, so it seems to be pretty universal. And the pots will last for years...I hope.