Dreaming of Your Summer Garden

When we lived on acreage in Oregon many years ago, one of my favorite winter activities was to go through my Gurney seed catalog, order my seeds and an occasional plant and plan out the summer garden. I'd sketch the garden layout and dream of the harvest and yummy, fresh produce. Is it strange that would excite me.
I had that same excitement when I saw this fun idea for we gardeners...or we wantabe gardeners that try and fail but then try, try again. Dori sent this along to me and I just have to share it with you.

Please let me know if you think you'll try this. And if you try it...let us all know how it goes. I love harvest stories.

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According to this article from the Seattle Times, potatoes planted inside a box with this method can grow up to 100 pounds of potatoes in just 4 square feet. All that is required:

· Lumber

· Seed potatoes

· Soil

· Careful attention to watering

The Times' guide for building a potato growing box yields up to a 100 lbs. of potatoes in a mere 4 square feet is shown below:

Plant as early as April or as late as August 1, with an approximated 3 month till harvest turnaround time.

Here are some pointers from the article:

· Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant.

· Dust the cut pieces with fir dust, which seals the open ends from bacteria.

· Fertilize with 10-20-20 fertilizer at planting and a couple of times during the season.

· Water so that the plants are kept at an even level of moisture.

· Don't plant in the same area in consecutive years or use the same soil to fill your potato box, as potatoes can attract various diseases.

Happy day, msk