Final Hilling of the Potatoes

French Fingerling or Russian Banana flowering

Over the weekend, we hilled and mulched the potatoes.  They are starting to flower now and with luck, we won't have to do anything else until harvest in September. 

The potato greens were growing tall so we hilled them a third time.  The hilling keeps them cooler, can improve the yield and keeps them in the dark to prevent greening. 

Here's Kamal shoveling dirt around the potatoes.

My job was to make the mounds to support the greens.

Mulching
We searched close by for straw and bought some down the street.  In the end, I used nine bales.  The straw keeps moisture in, keeps the weeds down and makes it harder for the Colorado Potato Beetle to get around.  As we found out last year, it makes some voles happy too.  We'll see.

Here I am putting the straw down

Here's what the potato beds look like now.