I pulled all of the potatoes last week. You can see the result above. They’re Russets on the right and Yukon Gold on the left. The Russets were still a bit small, but the plants had mostly succumbed to some form of fungal disease that was causing their leaves to wither and fall off, so I figured better to take what I had now than risk them rotting in the ground later. I don’t think they were getting much bigger, honestly, given how little green there was left on the plants. For perspective, this is from about ten pounds of seed potatoes total, so it’s pretty bounteous. Suffice it to say, we’re eating potatoes every day. Kind of like the salad days of summer, but with simple carbs instead of leafy greens.

I called this post “the end of the bounty,” because even though it’s pretty early in the summer to call the garden quits, I’ve pulled or lost most plants. The squash and melons succumbed to vine borers; the cucumbers to a fungal disease; the tomatoes were determinate and had mostly finished production; or they were cherry tomatoes and were just absolutely taking over everything in a ten-foot radius. Maybe next year, with better management, I’ll keep plants producing until first frost, but as-is, I’m calling this one a win and beginning the process of reclaiming my beds and putting them down, eventually, for the winter.

I’ll close with an adorable picture of Basement Cat.

This is what she does when she wants to be let inside.