Potatoes

I'm Irish, well part Irish, so of course we have to grow potatoes. We chose some organic red fingerlings and a white potato to start. The knowledgeable helper at the nursery told us about the gunny-sack growing method and we decided to try it.

We planted the spuds in the bottom of a gunny-sack with the top rolled most of the way down in dirt that does not include manure (we eat the skins). As they develop a some height (about 6 inches), we'll roll up the sack a little and add soil. We will continue to roll the bag up and add soil periodically until the plants flower. At that time we will cease to water them and wait to harvest until the tops begin to die back.

This leaky, old, galvanized bucket is a perfect holder for the gunny sack. I drilled a bunch of extra holes in the bottom for good drainage.

Dirt

Now that the horse-troughs are "plumbed" and ready to plant, we need to add the dirt. Our gardening friends tell us "It's all about soil... get the right soil mix, and you'll grow great vegetables!" We discovered there are lots of options and lots of opinions on what constitutes the "right soil mix."

For this year, we decided to go with what was most readily available. Our neighbors had purchased 7 yards of topsoil consisting of half compost and half sand. Since they didn't use it all, they suggested we buy it from them.

Here's my truck getting the first load.

One of our experienced gardening friends suggested we add a half-and-half mix of chicken and steer manure. Following the guidelines on the bags, we added about a half a bag of each to each of the horse troughs.

Robin's parents were both avid gardeners, her dad growing veggies and her mom growing flowers. Her dad passed nearly 5 years ago and her mom just recently. We have a small vial of their co-mingled ashes, which you can see in the picture below Robin is adding to our soil mix for good garden juju.

Just before planting, we also added some bonemeal to the top layer of the soil. Here's how the garden looks, ready to plant the first two troughs...

Note: each of the troughs (6 x 2 x 2 feet) required about 6 wheelbarrows full of soil.