Another garden post ...... I am so enjoying our garden this year, and it's doing so well. I think a lot of its' success (so far - there's a long way to go yet), is due to the weather. We really haven't reached those nasty, high temperatures yet, that Texas is so well known for ... I'm really hoping that it's a mild summer this year !!!
As I've mentioned before, I planted potatoes for the first time ever this year. Silly me, I never did any research on them either, until they were in the ground and had started to grow. What did I discover ..... potatoes have to be mounded every couple of weeks to grow lots of potatoes. I've done that twice so far, but because of where I planted the seed potatoes in my raised bed, I don't know how much more mounding I can do.
Browsing the internet, introduced us to the potato barrel method of growing potatoes - what could be easier :-) So, a visit to Lowes was made yesterday ....
We purchased two 32 gallon trash cans ...
My sweet Hubby drilled nice, big drainage holes in the bottom of the trash can ...
You raise them on cinder blocks, to help with drainage ...
Lay some cardboard in the bottom of your trash can (OK, perhaps we should now call it a potato barrel). This helps to stop your soil falling out, and it also will eventually break down and become compost.
These are the type of nasty looking potatoes you need ..... seed potatoes.
We filled our potato barrel with soil you buy for flowers and vegetables - half a bag went into the bottom of each barrel. Dig little 3" deep holes, and place your potato, seeded side facing up. Then cover them up with soil. Finally give them a good water. The idea is, that once the plant grows about 6" above the soil, you throw more soil into the barrel, and you keep doing this, until the end of the growing season, when the top of the potato plant dies off. Then you just tip your barrel out onto a plastic painters drop sheet, and harvest your potaotoes ........... hmm. I can't wait to see if it works :-)
On another garden note - I saw this idea on Pinterest. They used painted terracotta pots for theirs. I used plastic pots from Walmart, as they were way more reasonably priced, and a lot lighter. I love how it has taken off. The Lobelia I planted in the top two layers is growing like wildfire - you can bearly see the 2 little gnomy residents through it. I had planted Fuschias in the bottom level, but only 1 survived (you can just see its pink flowers peeking out on the left side, at the back). I replaced them yesterday with Begonias.
I will keep you updated on the potato barrel progress ...... I'm holding thumbs !!!!
I want to made some potato barrels too....but Dean, not so much. Let me know how they do!
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