Potatoes and Fuzzy Gloves

When I asked my daughter what my next blog should be about she said, "Fuzzy gloves!".  I really don't see what fuzzy gloves has to do with anything else I've written here so I told her that was probably more her style and she should blog about fuzzy gloves if she feels so passionate about them.  So this ends the fuzzy glove portion of my post.

Fuzzy Glove Love!

Ok, so this post has taken me 3 days and this is all I have.  I want to write, I just don't want to write about potatoes so let's get this show on the road. 

I researched quite a bit on potatoes and how to plant them.  You Tube has plenty of folks who are more than happy to show you how to cut up your potatoes and how and where to plant them.  I thought about doing a deeper (10") raised bed but it didn't seem deep enough.  I saw some people planting them in tires and you keep piling tires up as the potatoes grow.  Didn't want to do that, don't want piles of tires in my yard.  I have a friend who planted hers in a trashcan and they are growing wonderfully.  I wish I would've seen this method before I planted but I had the chicken wire so that's what I went with.  I've been toying with the idea of picking up a couple of those Colored Tubs at Walmart and using them next year.  We will see. 




Chicken wire I had laying around.



I cut a 3' (H) x 10' (L) piece of chicken wire fence and made it into a circle-like shape.  I then covered the ground and about 6" up the sides with 3-4 layers of newspaper and started filling it up with a 50/50 mix of topsoil and compost, just like the raised beds.  I bought some seed potato from my local Southern States Store, you can order these through the mail also but I liked the convenience of buying them locally and not paying shipping.  I bought red, white and Yukon Gold seed potatoes.  I cut them so there were 2-3 eyes on each piece and placed them eyes up and covered them with about an inch of dirt.  Within a week they were growing like crazy!






Lined with landscape fabric.



The reason I planted them in this deep container is when they start to grow, you keep adding more and more dirt until they have grown up over the top and you can't add anymore dirt.  Then the potatoes start growing in the container.  As I started to add more dirt I lined the chicken wire with some nice heavy landscaping fabric I had laying around the yard killing grass.  This way the dirt won't just pour out through the chicken wire and it stays nice and dark in the containter - just the way those taters like it!

                                                           

The finished product (pretty, right?).

As you can see mine are in need of dirt and one of the bins is just about over the top.  The red potatoes seem to be the slowest growers but they were the first to sprout.  They will be ready to harvest when the tops turn brown and wilt, then we get to dig, dig, dig our potatoes!

So there you have it, now get out there and plant yourself some taters!