The Technique

The 1st year, we dug holes, planted transplants, put Miracle Grow Organic in and mulched with grass clippings.

The 2nd year, I read The Square Foot Gardener and made 2 squares.  But it wasn't enough for my ambitions.  I expanded the original plot next to the clubhouse, added 2 30' rows for tomatos and eggplant and 3 20' rows for squash and zuccini.  And I added drip irrigation.  I'll go into more detail later.

The 3rd year, I created the main plot.  I added plastic mulch with drip irrigation under it.  More detail in another history post, but suffice to say, it worked well and was much less work then year 2 with lots more produced.


This year (4), I'm taking pictures and showing my work.  These are finished rows.  The plastic is 4' wide.  In between the rows are large scraps of cardboard I saved since christmas.  I cut them down to ~ 2' wide.  I like narrower walkways.

There is 1/2" line up one side of the garden.  For each row, I run 2 lines of 1/4" drip hose to the other end.  I'm using .5 gph every 6".

I have a 1/4" valve on each, in case I want to slow down a row, but I never used it last year.  I might want to stop watering a row that's done.

More Potato

I cut the potatoes into chunks with at least 2 eyes, dusted the cuts with sulfur and let them set overnight.

Saturday, I put them into the trenches about 12" to 18" apart.  That's probably  too tight, but potatoes are forgiving.

Notice I have double the number of trenches from last week?  20 lbs of seed potatoes take lots of space.

I put 2.5 pounds of potato per row.  I put 1 pound of fingerlings per row.  Each row is 20' to 25'.

I put 2 chunks in each spot.  I have 2.5 pounds of All Blue from
Fedco Seeds' Moose Tubers.  Last year's crop was excellent.  The texture of Red Bliss and they keep well.  Plus they're blue all the way through, even after cooking.

I had ordered 2.5 pounds of Carib but Purple Viking  was substituted.

I also have 2.5 lbs of All Blue plus 2.5 pounds of Green Mountain for the In-law garden at their house.

 I've never had fingerlings so I got Fantastic Fingerings which have a pound of 5 different types.  I had some extra for the In-law garden.

I just drag a bit of the dirt I turned over back across the chunks for a light cover.  Later in the season, I'll pull more of it over to mound up the potatoes.

Potato trenches

Last fall I put down some cardboard outside my yard fence.  Then I put the clipping from the last mowing on top.  Lots of leaves were in it.  Here's what winter and this spring's floods did to it.  Not bad.

It's easy to dig a trench.  It's almost easier then digging individual holes.  This is turf I'm digging in.  I don't mow it as much as the lawn so it's not as dense as the lawn.  But it's pretty much the same as converting lawn into garden.

Put the spade in, plant with your foot & let gravity do the work.  Don't take too much.  If you do, you'll need to tear the turf.  With small bites, the shovel cuts it & there's very little to tear.

Pull the handle back and turn the turf to the side.  Ideally you have the grass turned over on top of the turf between the rows.

Supposedly this is an old Irish technique for converting turf into garden.  Next year the grass will be decomposed and the whole thing will be loosened up and easier to turn in.

This is what it looks like.



Four rows down the long way.  I did the plot next to the clubhouse like this and it's easy to dig there now.  This will be even easier next year.

 Finished,  from the side.





And the end result.

Now I need to get the potatos starting to sprout and cut the eyes for planting.  I have 20 lbs to plant, up from 2.5 last year!

This is outside my fence and closer to the woods.  A deer run goes through here.  I'm hoping they won't be that interested in potato plants.  I do have some wire fencing I can put around later if I need to.

Next year, I'll need to rotate another crop in here.  I'll surely need a fence because anything else will probably attract critters.  I might just plant a cover crop for 2 years.  I have room back here for 2 more potato plots of the same size.

Out and about

Garlic and chives.  One of the kids already ate some.

I think the mystery plant is some red leaf lettuce I let go to seed last year.  It's a bit bitter.

Something munched on it; I think the rabbit because we haven't seen the woodchuck yet.