Stephen B. Thomas

John C Daley wrote:Nynke, no I have not, I never seem to get going with any vegetable planting, which is why I thought the tower was clever.
Christopher, thank you for the surprising counter case for the towers.
For those not inclined to look up Chris's referenec [sic]
[...]
The purpose of hilling is not to stimulate production of tubers, but to protect the tubers from the environment.
Potato yield is primarily limited by foliage area, not by the amount of soil above the seed tuber.

In my experience here at Wheaton Labs, we've covered potatoes with soil and mulch of some kind to protect them, and were elated when the potato shrubs seemed to overtake the area where they were planted. With a massive potato shrub, we'll consistently have a lovely yield.

I think it's tempting to ignore the presence of foliage, coupled with the hopes that all the magic of potatoes happens underground. My take is that caring for the above-ground portions of the potato is undervalued in typical, "conventional" gardening.

Big THANKS to SEPPer Bea Cates for her care package of cool stuff for the Boots!!!

Pictured here are the things she sent along: homemade tooth powder for me, a nifty cross-stitched kerchief, a book and tacti-CLIPS for Melissa, a detachable hard drive for Boots' data, and some homemade ache oil. The big bag decorated with snowflake cookies is zinc oxide sunscreen...!

Thanks so much for your generosity, Bea...!!!

Here's my personal calendar for May '26. I was thinking of the Aztec and Incan empires while I was making it.

Anne Miller wrote:It would be great to hear back from Stephen to see if he made this Grow-Cano and how it is doing.

Thanks for asking about it. I think gardening is one of the most exciting and interesting things we do out here at WL.

To sum it up, we had a mild winter round here this past season, however in late December we had a terrible windstorm that knocked down maybe 75% of the fencing at Allerton Abbey, which is where the prototype site for the Grow-Cano is found. We've held off on aggressive garden prep up there because without fencing, the deer treat us like a complimentary vending machine and just punch buttons until their food falls out. I really don't feel like feeding deer these days.

The good news is that since we have more hands on-site, fence repair is nearing completion. The rest of the team and I ought to have something to show for the Grow-Cano in time for late-season planting. We'll see.

Jordan Weiss wrote:We are four or five homesteader/permaculturists(We met at Observer Ranch in Penrose, CO) and will be visiting Missoula in early June.
Can we stop by and meet some like-minded folks?

I've been the High Commander of the Boots for about 3.5 years. I'm happy to meet you in person round then if being a Boot isn't in the cards at the moment. If you're just passing through town as a stop-over from one place to another, I can likely meet you for coffee in Missoula for a chat.

A Purple Mooseage is likely the best place to start the ball rolling on something like this. If you all can commit to being Boots for a week or more this June, then please chime in here.

BIG thanks to Clay McGowan for his generous grab bag o' Boots Love.

His contribution ranges from coffee, to dog toys, to seeds, to even a battery pack for our 80v electric chainsaw.

THANKS, man...!

Finished two more calendar booklet covers for a friend of mine. I feel like May was a bit on the "phoned-in" side of things, while June turned out all right.

At Wheaton Labs (arid continental climate, Zone 5-ish), yarrow and common tansy grow profusely round here.

This was an excellent video, describing how a guy took tomato seeds from McDonald's burgers and grew them to full plants over a season.

There's some obvious product placement in a few spots, but beyond that I found this entertaining and worth a watch. From saving and propogating tomato seeds, pruning/thinning plants, adequate irrigation, to final harvest and observations, there's a lot to take away from this very unconventional seed source. Maybe something like this can be a project for the Boots this season or sometime in the future...

Incidentally, does anyone have experience with this guy's fertilizer?

I'll be happy to coach anyone in how to light, feed, clean, and maintain any of our on-site RMHs, should Paul not be available.

@Clay: we have some repairs to do up there at the moment, but it will definitely be ready by then.