Potatoes Are Up!!

I noticed the other day that the potato bed had little stems poking up through the soil. Today I went to examine how they were doing.

New Potato Plant

It has been raining so much that I haven't had to water the bed, so I really haven't paid any attention to it. Not only did it have potato plants but also a lot of weeds.

Potato Bed In Need Of Being Weeded

It's always so much fun to see the potatoes popping up because according to all the gardening books, I plant potatoes wrong. Lol. According to the experts, when you plant potatoes you are supposed to dig a trench and cover the seed potatoes a little at a time until you have covered a mound over them. I honestly don't have time to babysit potatoes. I need to be able to plant them deep and forget about them. (See post and video here) Amazingly enough, you actually can dig a deep hole, pop in a cut potato with at least one or two eyes, cover it up, and it will grow. The last time I planted potatoes this way, in a 6' by 4' bed, we harvested five 5 gallon buckets. I can't wait to see what we are blessed with this year.

Potatoes In The Raised Bed Kitchen Garden

I took a garden rake and upset the soil in the bed. That did a job on most of the short rooted weeds and didn't bother the stout potato shoots at all.

Potato Plants In The Raised Bed Kitchen Garden

Not bad for a few minutes work in the garden. I can't wait until all the little shoots are up and we have a mass of large green potato leaves in this bed. Then our only worries will be from potato bugs, burrowing mice, and deer who like to eat potato plants down to the ground. These are the main reasons that we put up bird netting around this bed.

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First Day In The Raised Bed Kitchen Garden ~ Planting Potatoes

It's the first day in the garden. I'm a few weeks behind but everything will be fine; slow and steady wins the race. I only really have about 30 minutes each day to spend working in the raised beds but I'm hoping to be rewarded more than 10 fold.

My rewards were evident today. The weather was beautiful; nice and warm with a cooling breeze. When I directed my attention to the kitchen garden and turned the soil in my first bed I was greeted with beautiful, living soil. 

It was teaming with beneficial bugs and rich with composted rabbit manure and straw. The texture was spongy and it smelled fresh and earthy. I forget every winter how wonderful our garden system is. 

Today was potato planting day. I always manage to forget to order potatoes for planting so instead I grabbed a couple of bags of organic potatoes that I picked up at the grocery store. They had been growing roots in the pantry for a while. It doesn't take very many potatoes to plant a 4' by 6' raised bed. Especially since you only need a few eyes from each potato.

Using an old shovel handle to create holes was especially helpful in planting today. I know all the gardening books say to dig trenches for planting and to fill them in to mounds as the potatoes grow However, I don't have time to babysit these plants. They will come up fine and give us buckets of potatoes by the end of the year. At least, that's the plan and what has worked in years past.

Watering in after planting is essential. I'll have to make sure and water deeply every day. It's much easier to water with a hose but our collapsible, long hose sprung a leak last fall and we haven't replaced it yet.

30 minutes goes by quickly. Turning that first bed and planting some potatoes were the accomplishments for today. 

Here's hoping you have success in all your endeavors,
Jess

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"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." 1 Corinthians 3:6