Remember how I talked about planting potatoes?  Now it’s already time to dig up the potatoes!  It’s one of my  very favorite things to do!

Here are a few tips for digging up and storing potatoes:

• Once the plant turns crispy and brown and dead, the potatoes under the ground are finished growing.  ( I suppose this is obvious.)
• When the plant is crispy, you can leave the potatoes under the ground for several more weeks and they will be fine.  This will toughen them up a little, which is good.
• On the other hand, if you’re experiencing a lot of rain, you want to get the potatoes out of the ground so that they don’t rot.  Rotten potatoes don’t make good french fries.
• Use a big spade or potato fork to dig up your potatoes.  Look for the base of the plant, then dig several inches away from the base.  There are likely to be four to eight potatoes with each plant.
• Occasionally you will stab a potato with your spade or potato fork.  This is a bummer…and also kind of funny.  Throw those stabbed potatoes into a separate box and eat these potatoes first.
• Green potatoes can make you sick.  Potatoes turn green when they are exposed to light. Some people say to throw away any potato that has even a little green on it.  I just cut off the green part and eat the rest.  I have lived to tell about it.
• Russet or kennebec potatoes store the best for a longer period of time.  We usually eat up our red potatoes and yukon gold potatoes first and keep the brown potatoes in storage longer.
• To prepare your potatoes for storing, lay them singularly on a newspaper or old sheet in a darkish room.  Cover them with another newspaper or sheet and let them sit this way for about a week.  This will help “harden them off”.   Their skins will toughen up, which will help them keep longer.
• After your potatoes have been hardened off, put them into covered boxes or baskets.  We usually put about 15-20 pounds in each box. 
• It is VERY important that the containers for your potatoes do not allow any light in.  Light will cause the potatoes to sprout.  Without light, potatoes will not sprout for months.
• Place your containers in a dark, cool room.  We have a room in our basement that has been great for storing potatoes.  It doesn’t have windows to allow any light in.  It is cool but not cold.
• Cold potatoes will “sugar”.  That’s why you don’t put potatoes in the refrigerator.
• You may want to occasionally sift through your potatoes to check for any that may be rotting.  One rotten potato can cause the whole box to rot.  It stinks (literally).
• Potatoes will keep well for several months if stored correctly.  Ours usually last until about March, at which time we use the remaining potatoes for our seed potatoes!

Sometime in the next few weeks we’ll be dumping out our potato container to see how it did!  I can’t wait to see if we have a whole bunch of potatoes in our bucket (and I’m trying not to get my hopes up just in case they didn’t grow well).  I’ll share pics of that experience when we get around to it!
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This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Welcome to my garden tour.  Here are a few of my disclaimers:  I’m a much better cook than I am a movie maker.  I played with all the different features of Windows Movie Maker because I needed to edit out quite a bit of my video…like the parts where I walk from one part of my yard to another talking about random things that would have bored you to pieces.  Several parts of the video might seem are choppy.  And also…I needed to weed a few areas of my garden…but I wanted to get the video done, so I waited…and now you get to see parts of my garden in all their overgrown grassy glory.  I took the hoe to the garden soon after the video, just so you know. 

So here…without any more excuses for lame video footage…is the garden that grows in spite of me:

I’ll try to make another video in a couple more weeks.  We’ve had tons of rain lately, so everything is growing like crazy!!

If you have one…how’s your garden doing?  Enjoying any yummy produce from it yet?

I thought I’d better take some time (before it’s time to put up the Christmas tree or whatever) to answer some of your gardening questions from my previous gardening posts.  Sorry that by now it’s a little late for some of them to be relevant for this year’s garden.  Here are some of your questions, in no particular order:

Where do you buy heirloom seeds?

I order them from Azure Standard.  You can also find heirloom seeds in a Gurney’s catalog.

Any tips for a “garden” on an apartment balcony? I’m interested in growing a few veggies in pots — are there particular veggies that work better than others for pot-gardening?

I’ve heard that tomatoes and peppers grow well in pots.  And of course, growing potatoes in a container is a blast.  Otherwise, I don’t have much experience in this area.  I saw a post over at Passionate Homemaking that has great information about growing veggies when you have limited gardening space.  Check it out!

Do you have your own tiller?

Yes, but do you mean a working tiller?  No.  My dad gave us his old one a couple of years ago but it never worked great for us.  Then it stopped working at all.  This year we borrowed one from our friends.  Yay for friends with tillers!

What type of fertilizers do you use?

We’ve done a variety of things through the years.  One year we got some from someone who had horses.  Thus…horsey fertilizer.  Another year, we got some from someone who had chickens.  This year, we’re pretty much using our compost pile since we’ve been working on it for a few years now.

Do you use anything for pests?

Yes.  I screen my phone calls. 

Oh, but for garden pests…no not really.  Grasshoppers really like my green beans, but I’d just really rather not use any chemicals in my garden.  As I mentioned before, planting marigolds is helpful for some pests.  I’m researching other ways to keep away buggies. 

Once when I planted a bunch of potatoes with a friend of mine we had a terrible problem with “potato beetles“.  We finally just started going from plant to plant finding the bugs, grabbing them off, and squishing them with our fingers.  After saying, “Eew…eeew…eeeeeeew” for the first seven or eight bugs, I got over it and started squishing (their guts out) gleefully.  When you know they’re ruining your crop, the gross factor isn’t so gross anymore.  It’s war.

Do the boys like to help?

Eh, sort of.  At first it’s all fun and games, then it gets tiresome for them.  They like planting…especially potatoes.  And they like digging up potatoes.  Asa’s really good about bagging the grass when he mows…then he puts it down as mulch. 

How do you work around the boys when they don’t want to be out there?

If they don’t want to be out there, sometimes I make them anyway…because I’m fun like that.  Or, I’ll leave them in the house doing some of MY other jobs so that I won’t have to work double time when I come back in.

They are very good at snapping green beans and washing and tearing lettuce…some of the jobs that have to be done after the outside garden work is done.

Do you know if you HAVE to use seed potatoes?

No, you don’t have to.  You can use some of your potatoes that you grew last year.  You can use regular potatoes from the store…although they have probably been treated with chemicals to keep them from sprouting…and if you’re planting a potato…you want it to sprout.  I’ve usually stuck with seed potatoes, or some of my scrawny sprouting potatoes from last year’s garden.

**UPDATE** Did you see Candace’s comment?  She said, “FYI- We tried potatoes from the grocery store last year, organic ones. They grew great above ground and flowered and all. But, alas, no potaoes underground!”

So, maybe not potatoes from the store?  Anyone else have any experiences with regular potatoes?

How do you store your potatoes and how long do they last?

I put my potatoes in covered boxes in a dark, cool room in my basement.  They keep until about March before sprouting. 

How much sun/heat can potatoes take? I live in the desert and am not sure where they would best be placed.

They need lots of sun.  Bring on the sun.

Any other questions?  How’s your garden growing?

If you have limited garden space…planting your potatoes in a container is a fun option.  I’ll be planting potatoes both in my garden and in a container, just so that we can have as many potatoes as possible!

There are a variety of ways to plant potatoes in a container.  For me, the easiest way is to use an old rubbermaid garbage container.  (Hint:  remove garbage first.)

Here are the simple steps:

1. Poke or drill several holes in bottom of garbage can.
2. Scoop about one foot of soil into the container.
3. Push five whole seed potatoes into the soil, spread apart evenly.
4. Make sure the potatoes are completely covered by about two inches of soil.
5. Water the seed potatoes.
6. Sit patiently and wait for them to grow.  You may want to take up knitting.
7. Once the plants have grown to 7-8 inches in height…scoop more soil into the container.  The soil level should be about three inches from the top of the plants.
8. Water the plants as needed.  As soon as the plants begin to flower, be sure to water generously and consistently.
9. Each time the plants reach 7-8 inches above the soil level, scoop more soil into the container, maintaining the soil at three inches from the top of the plants.
10. At the end of the summer, dump out the contents of your container (which will, by that time, weigh approximately 368.4 pounds).  Dig all around the dumped out soil and gather potatoes. 
11. Jump and cheer each time you find a potato.  Have an “I found the biggest potato, neener, neener, neener” competition. 
12. Go make mashed potatoes.

Don’t ask me how many potatoes you’ll be able to grow using this method.  I’ve read that you can grow several pounds of them.  Last year when I first tried doing this, I didn’t do a very good job of continuing to fill my container with soil like I was supposed to…therefore I didn’t have a very high yield.  This year…I’m planning to do better!

By the way, with the exception of poking the holes in my container (because I had done that already last year)…this process took only ten minutes.  That included digging up soil, planting, watering…and yes…stopping to take a few picture.  (Wonder what my neighbors were thinking?  Weird lady.  Takes pictures of her dirt and trash cans.  Weird, weird lady.)

A few more things you might be wondering about…

How should I poke holes in my container?  Well…I had the kids stand back while I went to town with a pitch fork.  But a much safer and more effective way is to use a drill.

What kind of soil should I put into my container?  I dug up some good soil from the compost area in our backyard.  You can use packaged soil from the store…but keep in mind that you’ll need quite a bit.  I remember being surprised last year with how many bags of soil it took.

Does my container need to have the left-side handle missing?  No.  Your potaoes will grow just fine in a container that has both handles attached.

Will you show us updates on your blog as your potato plants grow?  Absolutely! 

Will I get dirt under my fingernails?  Yes.  When you push the seed potatoes under the soil, you will get dirty.  But don’t worry.  It will feel good.  You’ll feel like a good farmer.  You’ll feel like you’re working hard to feed your family.  You’ll feel like you accomplished oodles of work because you got dirty.  (Don’t tell anyone it took ten minutes.)

Oh…be proud of those dirty fingernails!  See…I was so proud of mine I took a picture for you.  (Weird, weird lady)

Do any of you have experience planting potatoes in a container?  Any of you planning to give it a try this year?  Anybody want to send me a picture of your dirty fingernails?
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Be sure to join us here next week for the Springtime Giveaway Carnival.  Read details here!
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.

One of my very favorite foods to plant is potatoes.  You put a hunk of potato into the ground….then, it grows into a plant…which produces several brand new potatoes.  When it’s time to dig up potatoes in the fall…it’s like Christmas time!  I LOVE it!!

Here are some Potato Planting Basics:

• Purchase seed potatoes (I got mine at a grocery store).  Find seed potatoes with lots of “eyes” if you can. 

• Keep in mind that the “russet” or “kennebec” potato will store the best…so if you’re planting enough potatoes to store for a few months, you’ll want this kind.  Red and Yukon Gold don’t store quite as well (oh but they sure are yummy!). 

• Cut your seed potatoes into hunks.  Each hunk needs to have at least one good “eye” (see the one in the picture below?).  That’s what your new potato plant will grow from. 

• Be sure not to cut your potato hunks too small.  They need to have enough potato on them to provide nourishment for the plant as it starts to grow.

• It’s a good idea to cut your potatoes a few days before they are planted so that they can “cure”.  This helps to prevent rotting under the ground once they are planted.  However, most years I don’t know that I’ll be planting until the day I plant!  Cutting the potatoes right before you plant them won’t hurt anything!

• Place your potato hunks in the ground with the “eye” facing upward.  They need to be about one foot apart.  To make this easier for my kids, I usually break a stick into a piece one foot long.  They lay down a potato…then lay down the stick…then lay down another potato at the end of the stick.  It’s a great way for them to measure the distance and avoid putting the potatoes too close together.

• Your rows should be about two feet apart.  Cover your seed potatoes with about 3-4 inches of soil.

• Once you’ve got your potatoes planted, give them a nice drink of water.  Then, leave them alone for a few days.  It isn’t neccessary to give them much water for the first several weeks.  After a week or so, you’ll see some nice sturdy plants coming up out of the ground (at which point, you’ll do a happy little potato dance!).

•  Once the plants are about eight inches tall, pull the soil up around each of them and kind of pack it in around the base of the plant.

• When your potato plant begins to flower, you’ll know that there are now some new potatoes growing under the ground (and you’ll do another happy little potato dance!).  At this point, your potato plants need plenty of water.  Big fat potatoes can grow bigger and fatter with lots of water.

• All summer long, be sure that the soil is pulled up high around the base of your plant.  You don’t want any growing potatoes to start popping up out of the soil.  They’ll turn green….and you don’t want green potatoes.

• You can begin to “steal” little new potatoes from your plants anytime after they flower.  But, if you leave them there and continue to water them well, they’ll grow into baked potatoes and french fries and bowls of mashed potatoes.  Really, it’s true.

And may I just say….you haven’t eaten a potato until you’ve eaten a fresh potato right out of the ground!!! 

I will also be planting some “containers” of potatoes this year since I don’t have enough garden space to plant enough potatoes to last us the entire winter.  Soon, I’ll share that technique with you….and maybe all of you who don’t have big garden spaces will want to play along with me.  Start looking out for big garbage containers!!

A couple more things…I live in the midwest and I haven’t actually planted my potatoes yet.  (I took the above pictures last year when we were planting.)  You’re safe to plant potatoes a few weeks before the last freeze…so for me that means I can plant them pretty soon.  We just haven’t had a chance to get our garden ready for planting yet, what with all the SNOW THAT HAS FORGOTTEN TO REMEMBER THAT SPRING IS HERE.  Really, I do love living in Nebraska.

Are you planting potatoes this year?  Interested in learning more about planting potatoes in a container?  Have any more potato planting tips for us?
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.

I’ve been asked by several of you if I would share more about what I know about gardening.  As my friend Serenity put it, sort of a “Gardening for Dummies” series. 

I’m happy to agree to this…as long as you realize that this series is also written by a Dummy.  (that wood be mee.) 

I PROMISE you that my garden grows completely IN SPITE OF ME. 

Here are a few things I’ll share with you to start of this series:

• Some years are good years for some crops and some years are not.  Whenever I have a poor crop of something, most everyone around me has had a poor year too.  If you have a bad crop of something, you don’t need to feel like you failed.  (And by all means, don’t give up entirely!)  Some years you’ll have so many green beans you’ll be paying others to take them off your hands…some years you’ll barely get enough for everyone in your family to have one bean on their plate at dinner.  That’s normal.  (Unless I’m the one whose not normal?)

• Worms are good.  You want worms in your garden.  I have been known to chatter excitedly to the worms I see when I’m digging around in my soil, wishing them a prosperous life of going forth and doing whatever good things God made them to do in my garden.  Sometimes I’m tempted to lay my hands pinky on them and pray over them.  Worms are good.

• Bugs are bad.  I do a different kind of “laying on of the hands” (and feet) when I see them.  (I also talk to them, like I talk to the worms, but my words aren’t nearly the same.)

• To help control bugs, if you want to try to have a chemical free garden, like I do….you can try to plant some merigolds here and there when you plant your seeds.  Bugs don’t like merigolds…

• Compost is great for your garden (and a great way to use produce waste from your kitchen)…the Happy Housewife has a wonderful tutorial here if you want to learn to start composting.

• Plant your seeds like it says on the package.  If it says to plant the seed after the last frost…don’t plant them before the last frost.  If it says to plant them four feet apart, plant them four feet apart.  You don’t want squash vines working their way into your green beans.  Trust me (the dummeee), I should know. 

• If you can get your hands of them, heirloom seeds are best.  They may not produce as well as hybrid (because hybrids have been genetically modified to produce like crazy), but they are better seeds.  I usually have a mix of both in my garden.  I’m hoping to work my way toward more heirlooms through the years.

• Don’t plant potatoes beside tomatoes.  They are both night shade vegetables (except a tomato is a fruit, but whatever) and for some reason they don’t do well together.  As far as I know with the searching I’ve done, there are not others you need to be so careful about.

• You can try starting seeds in the house (for tomatoes, broccoli, etc.), but if you don’t have a good source of light for them they usually get long and spindly very quickly (and non-transplantable).  Starting seeds has never worked very well for me so I buy what I can from my 10 year old friend, Hannah, who has started a little “seed starts” business.  Her mom has a good set up for her in their house, so Hannah’s already got tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli and other starts going.  Yay Hannah…and yay me!  

• If you have enough garden space, it’s best to rotate your crops each year since each plant takes something different out of the soil.

This year we’re planting potatoes, peas, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, green beans, corn, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers…and maybe another fun thing here or there.  Here’s a (lovely) drawing of our garden plans for the year.

I’ll plan to show you all of our seeds and plants as they go into the soil.  I’d love to hear any questions you might have that you’d like me to address in this series.  Plus share with us here any great gardening tips you know of to get us started on the right foot!

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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.