image via – youtube.com
Summer is here, which brings the promise of spending time outside in nature, and watching our gardens grow. Each of our annuals come to life as nature awakens, giving us the spirit of rebirth. In addition to beautiful plants and flowers, many of us enjoy planting our own vegetable gardens.
Each year I plant tomatoes, lettuce, and fresh herbs, but I never thought of planting potatoes, until I came upon the amazing video you are about to watch below. As we all have grown more and more concerned about what pesticides are doing to our future health, in addition to genetically modified produce, growing our own has more of an allure.
Although organically grown vegetables can be bought, the prices are prohibitive, and you never truly know what is being used on many veggies that are labelled organic.
Aside from health concerns about store-bought vegetables, there is just something inherently satisfying about growing your own, and eating what you, yourself have lovingly produced. Some people have space constraints on their property, which get addressed by Laurie Ashbach, from the blog “Dan 330”; the video shows how she was able to yield a large amount of potatoes in a few square feet!
Be sure to get seed potatoes that are “Certified Organic”, and plant them by late Spring; Laurie got hers from the “Seed Savers Exchange”. When her potatoes were ready for planting, Laurie and her husband inserted four 18-inch fence posts into the ground, forming a square of a few square feet, that gets wrapped with wire fencing for protection.
They then filled it with hay, which looks like a nest, which they then fill with compost or soil. They prepare the potatoes for planting, by cutting them so that each piece has at least 4 eyes; Laurie had 8 medium potatoes, each with 4 eyes. Laurie had 36 eyes to plant; 9 were placed around the outside edge of the “nest” which she did in four layers. With the help of ample watering, the tower grows all summer, and the potato leaves flourish, producing lovely flowers.
Watch the footage below, where at the end of the summer, Laurie excitedly is ready to reveal her harvest.
It is beyond cool to watch her dig out layers and layers of homegrown potatoes. All I can say is WOW!
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