Welcome to 2025!

Hi! I am the Potato Queen; welcome to my ancient blog! (Does anyone say "blog" anymore? Probably not.) FYI, this little site is not monetized in any way, and I am just a rando who named herself Potato Queen 15 years ago and started blogging about her attempts to grow things outside, and hoping like-minded folks would find me and we could all share our experiences. 

It's one month short of five years since I last wrote anything here. 

I just spent some time looking at that last post and... wow. I had forgotten how much we did in the yard that first pandemic year, how many of our big transformations were made or begun such a short while ago. For example, the raised beds in our expanded, dog-fenced-in vegetable garden feel like such old news, as though they have been there forever. 

And last year, i actually looked around our property and realized: I have a mature garden. If I wanted, I could just leave it be to do its thing (aside from weeding and a little mulch). This has never happened before and, honestly, was a little shocking.

Of course, as any (fanatical) gardener knows, the garden is never truly finished. And this year, I have two new goals:

1. Incorporate more native plants into the landscape to encourage pollinators.
2. Begin to treat the vegetable garden not as a casual hobby but as a serious producer of veg that we will eat fresh and also preserve for off-season use.
3. (Dammit three! Three new goals!) Begin experimenting with hydroponics in order to maximize garden yield and (hopefully) grow fresh produce year round.

I got started on Goal 1 last fall when I built a new bed on the side of the house and planted a bunch of native perennials like asters, Joe Pye Weed, and I forget what else. Since I planted these all late fall while flowering was ending and everything was going to sleep, it will be a (hopefully delightful) surprise when they all wake up this spring.

Goals 2 and 3 are also in progress: I began starting seeds indoor way too early for my zone in January, wondering whether it would be possible to nurture some veg under grow lights to produce indoors. This led me to start investigating hydroponics for the first time, as presumably it allows for this very thing. This is all inspired by the anticipation that fresh veg is going to become scarcer and more expensive in the coming year. I hope you will join me as I blunder through this new process and share any advice or encouragement.