How to plant taters

[JimWWhite]

LVVCHAP, very nice setup you have there. I see you put down what looks to be wood chip mulch in your walkways and outside the beds. Do you have black fabric or plastic beneath that? I've allowed grass to grow in my walkways and I made them wide enough to get my push mower to cut once a week or so. The grass pretty much keeps the weeds down except just along the edge of the wood boxes I built for my raised beds. My string trimmer takes care of them. Here's a pic of mine back in the spring. There are another six of the 4x4 boxes in that empty area between the large boxes and the blueberries in the foreground:

But a very pretty garden you have. It looks like it's not too much work now that you've got it up and running.

 

[lesa]

That looks fab, Jim!! Love the bird house gourds! What are you growing in the small square gardens?

 

[kathyschix]

For the past couple of years I've grown potatoes in 5 gallon buckets. I just didn't have the garden bed space to devote to potato beds.

I drilled a few holes in the bottom of the bucket for drainage. Then I like to put a small layer of hay down, then plant the potato "eyes" in a layer of soil on top. As the vines grow up in the bucket, just keep adding more soil. Easy peasy and portable if you desire!

Regards,

Kathy

 

[Collector]

I have been reading up on the potatos in a 55 gallon drum. It is the same as the 5 gal bucket idea. I have read you can get 100lbs out of each drum. Has anybody tried this ? does it work?

 

[desertcat]

I tried growing potatoes in containers last year and things were going nicely until we got a lot of rain. All my lovely tater plants suddenly keeled over. After I was sure they were REALLY dead, I upended the containers to discover that what I thought was adequate drainage was nowhere near good enough...smelled like a nasty swamp. So my advice is, if you try containers, overdo the drainage!

 

[lesa]

I tried the drum idea, collector. It was okay. Yes, as desert says- you need good drainage. I got some potatoes from it, but no comparison to how well they do in the ground. If you have the room, I recommend going for it, in the garden...

 

[thistlebloom]

I also grew potatoes in containers, these were 25 gallon tree pots that I cut the bottoms out of and put in the same bed as the in-ground potatoes. It was an experiment, because I had read that the yields would be higher. They weren't. They weren't terrible, but not up to the claim, IMO.

 

[LVVCHAP]

LVVCHAP, very nice setup you have there. I see you put down what looks to be wood chip mulch in your walkways and outside the beds. Do you have black fabric or plastic beneath that?

Jim, Yes that is wood chips, I put newspaper down when I first put the garden in, but since then I have just added more chips every couple years.

 

[JimWWhite]

That looks fab, Jim!! Love the bird house gourds! What are you growing in the small square gardens?

Those are blueberries. Teresa wants me to build about 10 to line the side of the garden behind her in the pic. Eventually we'll have blueberries ringing the entire garden (at least that's her plan...) And the bird houses are really much higher than they look in the pic. A friend gave me 16 of the gourds and I went out and bought a 15 foot 1-1/2 inch galvanized pipe and put a cross member on it, re-hung the gourds and then planted it in the ground with concrete. I swear within minutes of walking away from it that day it was like there was a big 'Open House' sign on it when the bluebirds started showing up. Really, within a day or so all of them were occupied. If only I could have gotten a lease on them...

 

[lesa]

Oh, blueberries! Lovely! I am trying to grow them, but my soil, is not right for them. I'm giving them one more year, to start looking good- and then I'm using the land for something else!!
How lucky you are to attract bluebirds with your gourd houses. I love growing those gourds and have had birds nest in them- but I rarely see bluebirds around here...