So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

KimB

Four and a half pounds

As ever, I struggle to grow potatoes. I would surely starve if I had to rely on the ones I grew but I am compelled to keep trying.

Last year, I asked my friend from Belarus, how they grew potatoes on her family farm. We went down the list, well past the part of "Well, they just grow. You don't need to do much." Finally, we arrived at what we thought was the problem: I was giving them too much water and they never "tatered". The plants need to dry out like onions and garlic to get the "tater" part to work.

So armed with that new knowledge I forged ahead, following her directions and I GOT TATERS!

So this year I tried again, wondering if I would be successful using her directions.

In the winter time, the plants were beautiful. Luscious green leaves, lots of stalks and just looked fantastic. As we live in a dry climate, there's not a lot of rain so after what little natural rain fall happens here, I just "pulled the plug" and turned off the water.

Potatoes Winter Time 2014

I couldn't bare to look. Those beautiful leaves soon withered and shriveled and I consoled myself that the taters would be worth it and that's what the plants are supposed to do. I just walked away and didn't look back.

Last week, prepping my few gardening pots for the new season, I decided it was time to look at the potato pots. The plants had all withered and dried and a slight tug pulled them from the soil. It seemed like a good sign.

So, I stuck my fingers in the soil and it was hard. Rock hard. Drat. The dirt had turned into concrete, so I pushed harder and wiggled my fingers around the edge of the pot to yank up the dried clump. Except it wasn't a dirt clod, it was a tater!

I felt around in the pot and realized it was FULL of potatoes. A LOT of potatoes! Every inch of the pot was crammed with taters!

Out they came by the handfuls and I overflowed my harvesting bowl. I got a good sized plastic bag and filled it up with taters but there were MORE taters and I had to get a second plastic bag. Both pots were full of potatoes both big and small. It took several hours to empty the pots of all the potatoes in them.

When I tallied up my taters I felt like a truck-farmer with a REAL harvest. I weighed up the biggest ones and the scale tipped over at 4 1/2 pounds!



Potato Harvest April 2014
4 1/2 pounds