Potatoes

Potato trench ©Janet Allen
We started the potatoes in trenches

To grow potatoes, we first purchased seed potatoes, cut them in quarters, let them dry, then planted them in a trench.

Potato trench filled in ©Janet Allen
Potato trench filled in

As the potatoes grow, we gradually fill in the soil. This puts the potatoes below the surface.

Potato blossoms ©Janet AllenPotato blossoms

You can tell by the distinctive blossom that potatoes are part of the nightshade family.

Potatoes growing in a pot ©Janet Allen
Potatoes growing in a pot

To save garden space, we tried growing them in a pot, putting it on the end of the garden path.

Potatoes growing in a barrel ©Janet Allen
Potatoes growing in a barrel

We also tried growing them in a homemade "barrel", in other words, a barrel formed with fencing and lined with plastic garbage bags.

We probably wouldn't do this again because it now doesn't seem like a good idea to have our food growing in plastic.

Potato foliage matures ©Janet Allen
Potato foliage matures

The potato foliage is getting yellow and maturing. It's time to harvest!

Harvesting potatoes ©Janet AllenPotatoes are one of the kinds of vegetables that grow in the ground!

Harvesting the potations is fun. It's like looking for buried treasure.

We also like harvesting the small "new" potatoes at the beginning of the season.

Potato harvest ©Janet AllenA portion of our potato harvest

"Regular" potatoes are pretty easy to grow. (We've grown the Yukon Gold variety.) They're pretty prolific considering we planted just a few potatoes.

What we'd like to grow are sweet potatoes, though. We tried them one year, but they just don't do well this far north.

Potatoes ©Janet AllenDrying potatoes

It's important to dry vegetables such as potatoes before storing them.

Potatoes in a box ©Janet Allen
Potatoes in a box

We used our old cedar fence pieces to create a box to put on the path adjacent to the driveway—previously underused space. Not only is this method space-efficient, but we filled it with compost so there's no stones to interfere with the development of the potatoes (though this is a more important consideration with the carrots.

As the book Eating on the Wild Side suggested, we're now growing blue potatoes.

Harvest record

YR LB Notes
15 Again growing blue potatoes in boxes
14 24 Our first year growing in boxes; blue potatoes
13 x (We didn't grow any)
12 x (We didn't grow any)
11 24 We're looking for a way to grow potatoes that doesn't take up so much room
10 29
09 41