Hey everyone!
So, everyone must be getting excited to get their gardens in and some of you may already have your potatoes in, but if you don’t, here are some tips. Or if you are completely new, here is a successful way. The video link above will provide visuals of what I’m saying here and go into a little more depth than what I write.
First – get your supplies. You will need:
- Hoe
- Rake
- Seed potatoes
- peat moss
- bone/blood meal/epsom salt mix
- compost (if you have)
- (water, sunscreen and a back brace if you have a nasty back like me… this is NOT an easy job!)
Process:
- Dig your trenches about 12-18 inches deep.
- Layer compost or well composted manure into the trenches.
- Layer peet moss over top of the manure/compost. (Peet moss helps keep moisture in the ground, and helps keep potato scab to a minimum if that is an issue. Although rotating your potato crop each year should also help manage scab.)
- sprinkle a mix of bone/blood meal with epsom salts on this. Should look like you sprinkled salt and pepper over top of the peet moss.
- cut your seed potatoes in sections if they are large. Be sure that you have 2-3 eyes that have sprouted on each section.
- put potato sections into the trench 8-12 inches apart if you like small to medium sized potatoes, 12-18 if you like your potatoes bigger.
- Cover with dirt, but leave part of the trench open so that you have soil available to hill the potatoes later.
Make sure you try and keep your potatoes watered. If you let them dry out and then soak them they don’t do as well. It’s best to try and maintain a constant level of moisture in your potato patch.
Feel free to look on the right side of this post to see previous gardening blogs 🙂 Next week it will either be planting other root veggies (Carrots, turnips and beets) or asparagus. Thoughts? Comment below if you have a preference.
Happy Gardening!
Shy-Anne
P.s. If you have questions, please feel free to drop me a line at shyanne.leah@gmail.com
