The Year the Potatoes Took Over
Gardeners in Whatcom County find themselves waging a green war against 'volunteer' potato plants that have turned lawns and flowerbeds into unplanned farms.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Quite a wonder to the newly arrived Easterner are the volunteer vegetables which appear in Whatcom County gardens this spring. Turnips, cabbage, beets, and cauliflowers began to put out their green shoots early in March, and now the potatoes are beginning to show. Cain Brothers, of this place, had last year a potato patch in their grounds at the south of their residence. This spring they determined to turn it into a lawn, and plowed and graded it and seeded it to white clover, which came nicely. Soon, however, potato plants began to make their appearance, and today the whole lawn is covered thickly with a promising crop of the Peruvian tuber, which is rather too rank for good lawn grass. A gardener near the city has planted his small vegetables on ground which was last year devoted to potatoes; now, a large number of potato plants are crowding the radishes and lettuce in an awkward manner.
“the whole lawn is covered thickly with a promising crop of the Peruvian tuber, which, while its foliage is a beautiful green, is rather too rank for good lawn grass.”
The legendary fertility of Western Washington soil is a point of local pride, but this story captures the frustration of a gardener facing an aggressive 'volunteer' harvest. It remains a humorous staple of the local gardening experience.
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