As part of my foray into container gardening this year, I decided that it would be fun to try my hand at growing some potatoes. I’d done a fair amount of reading, and it seemed like growing potatoes in containers was pretty workable. I’d seen several examples of people growing them in old tires stacked 4 high, fencing towers stuffed with straw, and some much more elaborate wood sided towers that allowed for taking the bottom rung off and pulling potatoes out from under the plant.
The re-purposed container that we already had, potatoes already planted.
When it came time to plant my potatoes, I decided that for the first time around, I’d just use one of the larger containers that I already had laying around the yard. I’d previously used it to try and grow some flowers in, and while those turned out fine, some produce would be even better. I also found and picked up another container that I wanted to give a try with potatoes. It’s a bag made specifically for growing potatoes in, called, wait for it, Potato Planter. It’s kind of cool though. It’s made out of the same material that those blue tarps are made out of, and is designed with a velcro flap near the bottom of the bag to allow for you to open the bag and pull some potatoes out of the bottom while letting the rest of the potatoes grow near the top.
So, armed with my containers and a couple of bags of topsoil, I set about planting some potatoes!
After the plants have flowered, and the plant itself starts to yellow and die off, give the potatoes about a week to two weeks to mature, then harvest them. (This step and the ones following are purely from my research, and not from experience yet. I could be way off!)
When you harvest the potatoes, set them out in a warm, dry place to dry. This is supposed to allow the skins to harden up a bit for better storage. (One downside here is that the second the potato gets to a harvested state, the natural sugars in the potato begin converting to starch. I’ll be trying a few fresh from the ground and some that have been “hardened” and see how much of a difference there is.)
Repeat next year!
So far, I’ve gotten as far as planting, and adding soil to the potato containers. I’ve got one more batch of soil to add to the containers to fill them up with soil, then it’s just a waiting game as the plants grow potatoes and I wait for harvest time. This year is a bit of an experiment, as it’s our first year of dedicated container gardening, as well as the first time I’ve ever grown potatoes. Rather than add too many variables to the mix, I just planted some seed potatoes that I got from our local grocery store. If I recall, they were the Red Pontiac variety.
Next year, should this year be a success (and it’s looking like it will be), I would like to order some seed potatoes of different varieties. In particular, some purple potatoes. Mostly, just because I think they look cool! I’d like to try a few of the heritage/organic varieties too, and see if there’s much of a difference.
Have any of you ever successfully grown potatoes in your gardens or in containers? Got any hints or tips for me? Suggestions for varieties to grow next year?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
In years past, we’ve tried futilely to grow a variety of vegetables, fruits and flowers in our designated garden areas of our yard. Each year, some part of that has been a tremendous disappointment. Part of the issue is the soil itself. We have a large evergreen tree in the back yard that provides and excess of shade, an excess of protection from rainfall, and an excess of needles that lend a terrible acidity to the soil. Between not getting enough shade, not getting enough rain and poor nutrient values in the soil, everything we plant has a terrible time trying to grow.
We’ve tried several things over the last few years. Much more regular watering helps, obviously. We’ve added better quality soil to try and make the soil better for growing. We’ve even fertilized the plants. Each year, something happens to throw the wrench in the cogs. Last year, we had a major slug infestation, and what did grow was quickly eaten by the slimy creatures. With each year’s problems, we learn something new that we won’t repeat in future years. Last year, we learned that, while fallen leaves do provide good insulation for plants over the winter, a abnormally wet spring makes them a wonderful breeding bed for slugs. Maybe, after we’ve learned enough lessons, we’ll finally get a decent crop out of our garden. Until then, we’re changing it up a bit.
This year, we’re giving a container garden a go. We purchased several (8-10) containers of various sizes and shapes, filled them with potting soil and topsoil and purchased all the seeds we thought we might need for the year.
I started the seeds nice and early (perhaps a bit too early) and quickly encountered my failure for the year. Not only did very few of the seeds sprout, but those that did quickly died and began to mold. Nothing that I grew in that first batch of seeds is currently still with us. I bought some different seed starting supplies, and tried again. I got slightly better results, and a majority of those seeds survived. Any that still didn’t grow, I replaced with plants from a nursery.
So far, we’re only a few weeks into the growing season, but several of our containers are doing quite well. The potato planters are growing very well, and the onions (note: all not seeds that I started.) are doing well. Of the things that I started as seeds, the only things that are really doing well so far are the carrots. But, the other stuff is growing, and hopefully, will continue to.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the financial side of all of this a bit. When you stop to consider the burden of having to buy most of the supplies this first year, it would have been far more economical to just buy the produce from the farmer’s market. But, should we pull it off, and produce a good enough crop, we’ll continue it in future years. Each successive year will make it a bit cheaper, as most of the containers and supplies are reusable. This year, it’s probably creeping up to about $100 in total expenses, but next year will likely be a lot closer to the $20-$30 mark. For $20-$30, the produce grown will be very cheap compared to what we could get it for at the farmer’s market. Plus, it will have that little extra bit of flavor that gets added from having grown it yourself.
How do you garden? Do you have the luxury of a large plot for a garden, or do you make do with containers? Do you have any great tips for container gardening (or gardening in the presence of a evergreen) that you’d care to share?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
Do you watch a reality show such as Storage Wars or Sell This House?
Perhaps you have watched Storage Wars and have seen some of the participants walk away with as much as a $5,000 to $10,000 profit. (Of course some participants also have weeks where they lose a few thousand dollars on storage units, but we, as humans, like to be optimistic and focus on the units that make thousands of dollars.) Maybe you watch a few episodes and think, “I can do that!”
Or, maybe you like to tune in to HGTV on the weekend and watch people renovate their yards and homes in their spare time or watch experts come in and make a home more aesthetically pleasing so it will sell faster as they do on shows like Sell This House. You may begin to think about projects around your home that have bothered you—the old wooden kitchen cabinets that you wish you could brighten or modernize, the old worn out couch you would love to replace but can’t afford to.
The Benefits of These Types of Shows
These types of reality shows may help you make frugal improvements to your home. Take that worn out couch—maybe you watch Sell This House and learn how easy it is to cover your couch with a slip cover and make it look much better. Maybe you learn that you don’t have to spend $50 per window treatment; instead, you can go to Goodwill or a thrift store and buy flat sheets to hang on the window. By watching the show, you are learning simple, frugal tips to improve your home.
The problem comes when you watch these shows and they cause you to become dissatisfied with your current situation. Maybe you never thought about creating a patio of pavers behind your house, but because you saw it on one of the shows and liked the results, you want to do the same. You spend $500 to have someone lay the pavers for you and create your paver patio. Supplies were another $200. You have now spent $700 for something you didn’t even think of, let alone want, before watching the show.
Another problem is when you watch enough of these shows to think that you know what you are doing and will be able to replicate the success of the people on the show. An acquaintance I know was dissatisfied with his job and quit. His back-up plan? Buy storage units and sell the contents. The problem is that he does not have the expertise or the eye for valuables that the people on Storage Wars have. He pursued this line of work for several months and lost quite a bit of money. Now he is back to work in his old field.
These types of reality shows can be useful sometimes, but often, they increase your level of “want” or make you think you can do something you are really not qualified to do. Remember, these shows are for entertainment purposes, and the chance that you will be able to replicate the success of the participants is slim.
Have you watched a reality show that made you think you could do something you couldn’t? Did you lose money?
Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.
