added an 8 by 16 no dig potato garden, what do you think?

[lesa]

Are you still planning on hilling them? Looks fabulous so far!

 

[journey11]

After the potatoes are done, what a nice spot of fertile soil you'd have to plant something else in next year.

Thanks for the idea trunkman!

 

[trunkman]

Are you still planning on hilling them? Looks fabulous so far!

Nope, not going to hill them, I'm just going to let them do their thing, if I end up with a small harvest I won't try it again and vise versa. And if I don't have a good harvest I should have a great bed for next years garden like journey said. However it turns out I will keep everyone posted on how it turns out and will take pics along the way and post them on here..

 

[journey11]

Also, how many bales of straw did it take for a spot that size? Just wondering, 'cause straw is running near $7 a bale here. I think I'd really like to try this. Especially since this monsoon season we're having is preventing me from tilling. Normally I try to have my potatoes out around St. Patty's day. NOT this year!

 

[trunkman]

Also, how many bales of straw did it take for a spot that size? Just wondering, 'cause straw is running near $7 a bale here. I think I'd really like to try this. Especially since this monsoon season we're having is preventing me from tilling. Normally I try to have my potatoes out around St. Patty's day. NOT this year!

It took 4 bales of straw and I used close to 1 yard of compost. It might be expensive at first, but I think I'll have a great garden spot next year if the taters don't work out, I'm also planning on making more of these types of gardens in different spots throughout my yard for tomatoes, cukes and squashes.

 

[marypboland]

Your method of soil preparation is an old technique called "sheet composting." I used it to build all my garden beds. The first year I just planted field peas in the hay and manure mix late enough that frost got them before they had peas. Then next spring turned that in and planted a variety of veggies. Worked great. I used a lot of old spoiled hay (hay has a perfect carbon/nitrogen ratio for composting) as well as manures. I'm doing this again this year to create additional area for potatoes. But I will wait until next year to plant the potatoes.

Hay does contain some grass seed, but that will germinate first year and it's easy to hoe out small, week new grass seedlings. It's grass moving into your bed from surrounding lawn, grass that has support of parent plants, that is tough to get rid of. I'd put some landscape cloth around the edge.

Even if potatoes don't do too well this year, by next year soil in that bed will be good for anything.

 

[April Manier]

Wow! If this works, it's super cool!!!

 

[journey11]

Hey trunkman, I wanted to ask you how your potatoes are doing or if you've dug them up yet? I did mine like this too. I scratched around in there the other day, just out of curiosity, and haven't found any little potatoes yet. Maybe it's too early or I'm afraid maybe they went through the thin layer of newspaper I used and made them in the ground instead of on top.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Yes, I would like to see some pics of it as it is today.

I have never tried this method but I have learned over the years that putting down corrugated cardboard will cause the potato plants to send their roots out horizontally instead of down. Evidently the cardboard will not break down over one season and acts like a barrier to cause the horizontal spread.

I have had a miserable year for potatoes. I tried the long trench method and then we had 5 weeks of rain, rain, rain. My seed spuds were under water for a looooong time. Then only a few grew. I had voles chewing my potatoes and my pole bean stalks off at ground level. Now we have had 6 weeks of drought.

Some days you get the bear - some days the bear gets you.

 

[trunkman]

Well, the results of this experiment didn't turn out like I hoped. We have had a good bit of rain this year so this garden stayed very moist, too much water for the potatoes but not quite enough for the tomatoes and cucumbers so I set out the sprinkler and the potatoes got more water that they didn't need. I put out 9 lbs of potato seed and I've dug up about 1/4 of the garden so far and harvested roughly 10 lbs. I'll probably end up with about 30 to 40 lbs.. I'm not sure if I'm going to plant potatoes this way again, If I do I will move it away from all other gardens.. I also found that straw is a great place for mice to make nests, I've had a heck of a time with mice nibbling on my tomatoes...I also put straw most of my raised beds to help keep the soil moist and it worked really well in that respect but I also noticed that I've had a tomato molding problem that I've never had before. The straw I put down thick sprouted some kind of black mushroom in the mornings, as the day went on the withered and left black tar looking gook where they withered at, so straw is out for the rest of my gardens next year.. Hope this helps everyone decide if straw is the answer.. :/