Whenever a newbie gardener asks me what they should plant in their first garden, I always recommend planting potatoes.
Dig a hole, toss in a seed potato, give it a little water, and come fall you’ll have 5 to 10 more than you planted. Growing potatoes is really that simple.
Choosing which variety of potatoes to grow is something else entirely.
Find out what potatoes I’m growing in my garden this year in my latest eHow article.
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Beth DeRoos says
I recommend planting potatoes in 30 gallon Rubbermaid garbage cans that have small holes drilled on the sides and bottom for air circulation and drainage. You layer straw (not hay) twelve inches in the bottom and sprinkle on some compost. Then I take three pieces or organic potatoes I have, which I have cut so I have at least one eye, and allowed to dry a day or two to seal the cut, and place that on the compost. Then I cover with more straw and compost and do this until I have a wee bit over half full in the garbage can. Sprinkle to moisten. Then as the vine show, cover with more straw and compost. Repeat as needed. When the garbage can is full, leave and wait for the vines to dry down. Then harvest.
Potatoes take up so much space in the vegetable garden, that an elderly neighbor showed us this method in 1972. He also showed us how to grow cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries in hanging baskets and above the ground planters on the porch or patio, so they to do not take up a lot of space.
This way the vegetable garden itself can be planted with corn, pole beans, and more and more vertical crops. He also showed us how to take fine copper wire and place around pots, planters, to deter slugs and snails. They get a shock when their slime touches the copper. He also said to place a damp board in the garden ever six feet or so, because slugs and snails go under the board, and come morning you can knock them into a bucket of soapy waterm, or chickens love the snails and ducks love the slugs.
Tangela says
I am assuming you continue to hill the plants as they grow, correct? When you do this, do potatoes continue to grow from the stalk of the hilled plant – like a tomato stem will form more roots, does the potato?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! 🙂
Trish K says
We have 7 varieties: Red Thumb Fingerling, Purple Majesty, Burbank Russet, Nordic red, All Red, Yukon Gold, and All Blue(those we saved from last year for seed). We’ll figure out which variety does the best for us and plant fewer varieties but more of next year. We’re going to hill with straw, which we can use later for the compost pile. The concept is similar to a potato ring or bucket.