I have definitely been slow about getting our potatoes in the ground, so we will see how this goes this weekend. Luckily, if they don’t work, we have a wonderful organic potato supplier at our farmer’s market. In the past two days, I sliced the seed potatoes in order to let them dry out so we can prevent any disease. I picked up Peruvian Purple Potatoes from Happy Cat Organics at the Philly Farm and Food Fest back in April.
They are a smaller potato and are fun since they are an heirloom purple potato. By choosing heirlooms with vibrant colors, we are not only continuing the tradition of these foods, but also we are able to engage our family in the harvest when we pull out unexpected colors.
I also prepped the boxes a bit more from last weekend. We will not be planting potatoes in traditional hills this year since we need to work on amending the soil in the large plot. So, here we go again with the boxes. I wrote about their construction last year and hope that we can do better with them this year. For now, I turned over the base dirt, put the newspaper in to block out the weeds, and put soil into one. I still need to put the first round of boards on and add soil and compost to have enough in there to start. Next week, I will have an update on where we stand with the potatoes. Do you grow them in your backyard garden?
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You bet we do! Potatoes are so fun to harvest. It’s like an amazing treasure hunt–seeing the progression of sizes–big ones, mediums, little and the tiny ones that escape detection and sprout up next season. I’d love to try your boxes. Are they about 2′ square?
They are a 2 by 2 foot square. I followed the directions I found in the first post. The link is at the end of this post. Good luck with your potatoes this year, Andy!
I’m very interested to see your process. I am still a newbie and have limited space but I find potatoes very intriguing…