Potatoes, Peaches, Peas and Peonies

P is for produce.  There is an abundance of wonderful fruits, flowers, and vegetables that begin with the letter P.  

I usually try to plant a few potatoes in the garden every year.  Usually I just cut up some of the older Idaho Baking potatoes from the grocery store and plant those, or I'll use some of the potatoes left from what my Dad has grown and gifted to me.  Sometimes they grow pretty well and I'm surprised at what I find when I dig them up in the fall.  Other times they don't do so well.

When I stopped by the local nursery last week I spotted this bag of Red Pontiacs.  I believe this is the variety that my Dad has usually planted, so I grabbed it up and plan to get them planted soon. So what is it about this week that I haven't gotten much planted?  Hmmm, I did mow the lawn, dig some grass out of the roses, had some car issues and sick family members . . . and oh, yes, I've been doing some blogging too.  That might have something to do with it.  :)

The peas that I planted last month are only a couple of inches tall, so you can't see them too well.  Hopefully in a few months they will look more like these ones that DD4 photographed last year:

Source  (Doesn't she do a great job with her photography?  I may be a wee bit prejudiced, but her photos always look better than mine.)

The Peonies are also starting to grow, but it will be a few weeks before they reach their full potential and look more like this:

And, oh yes.  The new Peach Tree. 

 Last fall a dear friend at work mentioned that they had a volunteer peach tree in their yard that they were wanted to get rid of, but she didn't want to just cut it down, so her dear sweet husband dug it up and brought it over to my house, and I planted it in the back yard.  yes, near the section of fence that's falling down.  I've had two different peach trees in my yard before, and both bore lovely fruit, but both have died.  So I was very excited to see that my new peach tree has survived the winter and is starting to bud and bloom.  I've trimmed it down quite severely, so there isn't a whole lot to see, but I'm very hopeful to have many luscious peaches in the years to come.