Lazy Bed Potato Planting Method

Last year I grew potatoes in towers. The towers were constructed of wire fencing material rolled into columns. Each tower was lined with fabric and rebar was driven into the ground close to each tower for support.

6"/15cm of shredded leaves from the previous autumn were alternately layered in each tower with a layer of seed potatoes.

A 12"/30cm layer of growing medium was placed atop each tower into which was planted a grape/patio tomato. This proved to be a mistake. I was unable to harvest the potatoes when they were ready for harvest because the tomatoes were still producing.

Although, for the season, the grape tomatoes were productive(13.2 lbs/6.448k), I was disappointed with the potato production (2.11 lbs/1.031k).

This year I planted a few potatoes from the towers harvest of last year, combined with some sprouting potatoes from a bag of commercially grown potatoes found in my pantry. However, I used a different planting method.

I had a supply of sod I cut during the process of preparing the second raised bed site. This reminded me of a method of potato planting told to me by an Irishman who was raised in the Wicklow mountains outside Dublin, the Lazy Bed.

Basically, to make the lazy bed, potatoes are placed on the ground atop the grass. The sod next to the potatoes is dug up and flipped over onto the potatoes. Easy right? Sounded easy to me. Plus, I already had sod cut.

I chose a site close to my second raised bed. I decided to use the same footprint of my raised bed, 4'/1.21m square, for the lazy bed.

I placed four potatoes in a row, each 12"/30cm from each other. I also placed a drip irrigation tube in each row. The drippers are conveniently spaced 12"/30cm apart which made the potato spacing easy.

The previously cut sod was then placed atop the rows of potatoes.

The overturned sod was then covered with 4"/ 10cm of shredded leaves. The mulch of shredded leaves will retain moisture, provide food and allow ease of weeding. Plus I had to move the pile of leaves off my patio.

I hope the production of potatoes will increase with this method. Time will tell.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Behind In My Gardening

The weather has me behind schedule in my garden. Well, if I had a schedule, I would be behind.

There is a folk truism in this part of the world that says you plant onions and peas on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I didn't even have my garden ready for planting on St. Patrick's Day. I still don't have it ready and it is almost April.

This year I want to actually raise my square foot garden. I want to get some real drip irrigation with metered emitters, not the weeping hose I have been using. Plus I want to put down 1 mil plastic mulch over the drip system to try and eliminate weeding, increase soil temperature and retain moisture.

Ten days after the pea planting target date, I ordered online a 30'/ 9.1m roll of 1 mil red plastic mulch that is 4'/ 1.2m wide. I plan on making two 4' x 4' (1.2m x 1.2m) raised beds. So I should have enough mulch to cover both beds, almost completely, four times.

To get the order minimum up to $40 in order to use a discount coupon I received in the mail, I ordered some packets of Zinnias from W. Atlee Burpee. Burpee was a Philadelphia company that I remember visiting thirty-five years ago on Clarissa St. just NW of W. Hunting Park Ave. They are now in Bucks County, PA in Warminster, PA where you can still visit their store.


I love the ease of growing Zinnias. Beside their beauty, zinnias attract bees, butterflies and goldfinch love the mature seeds. All three creatures are a pleasant plus to the garden experience.

I hope my order ships really soon. In the mean time, I need to get some 2" x 12"/ 5cm x 30cm boards and a 2"x 4"/ 5cm x 20cm board or two for the corners of the bed frames and some exterior screws with which to fasten them.

Then there is the peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for the soilless growing medium.

The vegetable seeds to buy. 

The potato towers to erect.

The ...................................
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I love the growing season!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved - Photographs from Burpee.com

US Spring Vegetable Garden Planting Calendar

It is time to start planning and purchasing seeds for your spring and summer vegetable garden. There are some terrific garden tools online. Let me recommend two. Using those two you will be able to create you very own spring vegetable garden planning calendar. Planning season is here. Planting season is near.

National Climatic Data Center - first and last frost/freeze dates by zip code. 
Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planning Calendar - Plan your gardening year by last frost date.

To start you will need the last frost/freezing date for your area.

Source:NOAA

Go to the National Climatic Data Center and choose your state from the pull down menu.

Source:NOAA

There you will see a chart. Above is the top of the chart for Pennsylvania. Find the closest reporting station to your town. As an example, take a look at Bradford Regional Airport. The first column to the right of the name of the reporting station contains three temperatures in Fahrenheit(F), 36, 32 & 28. Beside each of those temperatures is a row of dates. Spring frost date is our concern. The third column from 32ºF is, for all intents and purposes, the last frost date. That column designates the date on which there is a 10% chance that the temperature will descend below 32ºF. Which for Bradford is June19.

If you open another browser window and navigate to Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planner you will see Skippy asks for the latest frost date for your area. Residents of Bradford would enter the date, 06/19/2013, into the field.

You will place your last frost date into the field, then click the "Generate spring planting calendar" button to create your customized calendar.

Source:http://bioarray.us/Skippy's%20planting%20calendar.html

Above is my planning calendar. As you can see I have just about a week to purchase onion seeds before they need to go into the ground. Don't delay, get your calendar today.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Potato Towers Harvested

2012 was the first time I planted potatoes in towers. I used shredded leaves from last autumn as the medium and planted patio style tomatoes on top of each tower.



Several kinds of potatoes were planted. Three kinds produced spuds - Yukon Gold, Russet and Red Norland.

The tomatoes produced massive amounts of both Husky Cherry and Super Sweet 100 tomatoes. The day I cut down all the plants in the garden, both of these patio tomatoes were still producing fruit. However, the potatoes that were growing under the tomatoes should probably have been harvested earlier. As a matter of fact the potatoes really didn't produce as much leafy greens as they should. There were only a few greens growing out of the tower and those that grew were sparse and short lived. The potato plants were long dead before I cleared the tomatoes and opened the towers.

The towers were opened by straightening the short ends of wire left on each end of the wire fencing the formed each tower. One by one the wires were opened until the fencing could be pulled back. The fabric was opened and the digging for spuds began.

While digging through the shredded leaves, I came in contact with three kinds insects. The first and most aggressive was ants. Ant nests were distributed throughout the medium. In those ant nests were angry ants! They climbed from my hands to my forearms, biting along the way. They entered my shoes, climbed my ankles biting on their way up my pant legs. I had to step back and wipe the ants from my limbs. This took some time, for no sooner did they appear to be off my limbs more appeared, still biting.

Another lovely find in the media were sow bugs. The presence of sow bugs is what makes me think I should have harvested the potatoes earlier. The sow bugs were eating the spuds. Not a great deal of damage but damage none the less.

The last insect I encountered were cicada larvae. Big ugly cicada larvae. Down at the very bottom of each tower between all the weight of the media, potatoes and tomatoes in each tower were some 20 larvae. I placed them on the patio surface for the birds to feast upon. They dried in the sun without any interest from the birds.

Lets get down to the important facts about the potato towers.

The potatoes were small,

the potatoes were few. 

The total weight of all potatoes grown was 1031g/ 2.27lbs.

If I grow potatoes in towers next year there will be changes. Changes such as no tomatoes planted on top of the tower, a way to ensure water is delivered to the whole tower, possibly a different planting media and definitely space between the towers to allow the plant leaves to get more sun which I hope will produce larger spuds.

To the drawing board.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

First Snow Pea Harvest

I picked some snow peas today. 

I love them when they are small, crisp, tender and sweet. Unlike the limp, tasteless monsters you get at the supermarket.

I didn't get many, 2oz/57g. They will be a welcome addition to a green salad.

Snow Pea Timeline

Seeds planted into the garden on 4 April

Snow pea plants 2"/50mm tall on 2 May

Snow pea plants 6"/152mm on 16 May

Snow peas 12"/305mm tall and flowering on 20 May

First harvest of snow peas 27 May

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Lettuce

I planted lettuce seeds on May 2nd.  

By May 9th lots of sprouts were visible.


The night temperatures have not dipped lower than 50ºF/10ºC since April 31.  The day temperatures have risen as high as 80ºF/26ºC on May 4 and have averaged 60ºF/15ºC in May. Rain totals 0.75"/2cm for the 7 day period and I watered the plot once.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Planting My Potato Tower

Once the tower was assembled, it was time to plant the potatoes.

I shoveled enough shredded and composted leaves into the tower to bring the amount of leaves to 6" above ground level.

I then cut three wires in the fencing to create a 4" x 6" port in the tower. I also cut the fabric to allow access to place the potatoes inside the tower.  

I purchased three kinds of seed potatoes - All Blue Potato, Red Northland and Yukon Gold.

There were only five All Blue Potatoes in the bag. I don't know how it happened but somehow, they got wet. They looked terrible.

      

                                  

                  view from the top opening of the potato tower

I cut off the seemingly rotten and or moldy parts and placed five sections from the five potatoes, each with at least one eye, into the tower through the cut wire ports.

I added 6" more of leaves to the tower. I was ready for more potatoes.

There were more Red Northlands in the bag than there were All Blue. The Red Northlands were dry and looked good. I cut those potatoes with more than one eye into smaller sections, each with an eye. This time I didn't cut the wires of the tower to place the potatoes.

I was able to reach into the tower from the top opening of the tower to place the potatoes.

I cut the fabric where each Red Northland was placed.  I cut quite a few openings to allow access for the sprouting potatoes to send out green foliage.

The last type of potato to plant was the Yukon Gold.  These were good and dry, also.  I cut them into smaller sections, again making sure there were eyes in each piece.  I placed 6" more of leaves into the tower and then the potatoes.  Cut some openings in the fabric and covered them with more leaves.

I expect to plant a patio type tomato in the top of the tower above all the potato plants. For this reason the top layer is at least 1' deep.

Once the potato planting was finished, the tower had a lean to it. That was because I was reusing old fencing. I became concerned a good breeze just might topple it over. So I set about to add some reinforcing.

I found two of the concrete reinforcing rods I used in the plot last year. I placed them very close to the tower and drove them into the soil about 2'(61c) with my heavy hammer. I then cut four 10" lengths of tie wire to tie the tower to the concrete reinforcing bars. I was confident this arrangement could stand a good breeze.

My first potato tower was complete. There remained more leaves and fencing. I building another tower was a possibility.
If I do, I need to purchase more seed potatoes.  I think I will get more All Blues.




©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved