A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 What do you plan to do next year?

since you mentioned it....how DO you grow potatoes?

We always took potatoes and cut them up so that each piece had an "eye" on it and planted that. Once the plant started dying off...dig up your 'taters.

Someone told me they grew them in old tires. They planted the tater and kept adding dirt and tires(going up) and when they were ready to harvest, they just knocked the tires down...no digging!

thanks Tonya!!
i might have to try them next year! (not in tires though )

One thing on the growing potatoes...when you cut them into pieces, be sure to let them heal/dry good where they are cut to help prevent rot etc. Some people also cover the pototaoe pieces in sulfur to prevent disease and bug problems.

Thanks Comfrey--thats good to know!

Just one more question--how long do they take to mature? When can I/do I plan them?

well, thats 2 questions, but anyway...

thanks again!

Well they are planted alot earlier then anything else...Around here by Saint Patrick's day is good, not sure if it would be the same for your area or not Mark, but it will be before your last frost date. Depending on what kind of potatoes you plant..maturity takes about 95 days.

again, thank you so much!!
I'll probably start them around April 1st.

There is a website that provides what they call "potatoes in a bag" its the potatoe pieces in a bag(like potting soil or mulch) that you simply slit open and water, the plants grow and when they wither you open the bag fully to collect your taters. Havent tried them myself but friends have and say that its a tidy easy way to grow them wvwn if you lack a lot of room. The plants themselves are quite pretty too and add interest to a balcony or patio!

I will definitely be growing in containers next year and I've never done it before. Currently I have:

Peppermint
Pineapplemint
Oregano
Tyme
Cinnamon Basil
Par-cel
Tiny Tim tomato

They are all growing indoors and seem to be doing fine the mints are alittle leggy but that's the most problem I've had so far.

Next year if space permits I would like to get the chemical Bill mentions in the "growing seeds" fact sheet for stopping damp off disease and using it on my lettuce seeds. That way I should be able to have lettuce indoors almost all year round. That would be super because I love salads.

I would also like to plant my spinach seeds the same way.

I will also do a pot of chives, green onions, radishes. And I will take some cuttings from my tiny tim so that I have several more plants than the one I currently have. But I only have one shoplight that handles two bulbs so unless I have plenty of windows where I go I will have to decrease what I want to keep by quite a few.

I wonder if growing them in an old plastic container i have would work, Maybe covering them with hay or straw as they grow larger so the taters are kept covered. What do you guys think?

DeborahL
Thanks for the suggestion....I don't know why I didn't think of doing it all by myself. I've just been having one of those months, I guess.

I did find the website, it is here for anyone wishing to use it The Old Farmer\'s Alamanac

Happy gardening!

Great, CajunMama !
It's neat, isn't it?
Nice of you to post it for everyone.

TK, damping off usually cannot be prevented with chemicals. It is easily prevented however, with proper seed starting procedures. Most importantly...clean pots and soiless seed starting mix.

That's about the only thing in my garden this year that was prolific...got a bunch..
Planted them for my Father~in~law, he loves them.

HANDBRIGHT... I think she was in Fla?
*originally from NY*
Somebody PM her and get her back on board..
I enjoyed her thread too!
(I have to tackle my PM area, and delete some)

May I ask what happened to the chicken wire?
And what are you getting?
Very Curious?

Sheri,
Okra is a veryyyy heavy feeder...
Do you fertilize alot, and with extra compost?

Tonya, stick with that plan, not to over do it..
Really... and do you soil first, get it worked up NOW *or as soon as possible*, so it's ready to plant in spring... that takes time to ammend the soil and get it right the first time..
so much depends on it..

If you do a FORUM SEARCH and type in potatoes, there should be something, about how to plant them and about covering and layering hay...

I am not planting a garden next year if I
still have Woodchucks... bane of my existance this year.. :p

I had squrrils, and raccoons...if you remember my mad attempt to get rid of them over the summer!

hopefully, they won't come back!

Yeah, but did those rodents eat EVERYTHING in your garden???????/
If I planted 20 types of plants/vegetables,
I harvested about 5... :p

But I do know any kind of pest that takes the fun out of gardening, isn't fun...
So, I know your pain..

I gave up 4 years ago and now buy animal foods, species appropriate. Sigh............
But the wildlife brats don't "prune" for me anymore !

Weezie...You need to find a live trap and trap that woodchuck, they usually live in pairs (male & female) and since you provided them with a good food source, they probable were able to raise a baby or two. Do you live in a rural area or town/city? If you live in a town the city might trap it for you, if you are rural then you could contact fish and game and they might help you with your problem. I had one last year that caused me alot of grief, but it got ran over on the dirt road, so no more groundhog problem. Turtles gave me grief this season, so I will be turtle proofing the bottom of my fence before spring.

We used a live trap once..
We caught one.. and then my husband and f~i~l went to pick it up and relocate it.. well, when f~i~l picked it up, the rodent lurched forward *and this guy/girl was a tub filled up from my garden bounty* well, the latch wasn't latched right and as it lurched forward, it came out..

Well, that rodent must have told every other woodchuck here and not one went back in that thing, nooooooo matter what I put in it..

Although, I came out my back door one day, and one was sitting on top of it, *surveying the property to find where the good crop was today* and two more were munching at the base of it, like waiting for the "lunch report"

TRY 5... :p
one died, it went up into my motor in my van to keep warm I guess one night and when we started the car, it got caught and we lost our fan belt.
I have pictures of some of them, on my front porch/steps.. but haven't gotten to them into PB yet..

We live in a small country town... but NO shooting in town though...

I would still contact the city and also fish and game and see if one or the other could help with your problem.

Weezie, I just saw your question...

The short answer is, a tree fell on the chicken wire fence. It leans terribly now.

It's kinda dark right now, but I think you can see the "lean" in this pic...

The long answer is, the fence was thrown up in a day using deck pickets, the chicken wire and staples...the wire isn't sunk into the ground, so the dogs can lift it up and get into the garden. The fence is REALLY not sturdy, and just looks awful!

Next year, we'll be working on making the back yard into a place we can ALL enjoy. Rob wants an outdoor dining room, and I want a bigger garden. Sooooo, we're going to fence in the front third of the back yard, in two sections with a path between for access to the back. We'll be using the vinyl picket fencing to make it more decorative.

I'm not sure if this pic is big enough to really show the plans, but this is what we came up with:

The scale is a little bit off, but it's enough to get the general idea.

The big white square is a huge garage that he won't let me knock down. Behind the garage is the fruit garden, to the right of that is the compost. That section of yard is bigger than the plan says. Middle-right yard, across from the garage, is an enormous white oak or swamp oak, not sure exactly which.

In the future: The front-right is a low deck with table and grill, surrounded by flowers. The left is going to be the larger garden, with a table in the middle of the old driveway - the better for me to work out there. (as opposed to doing my garden projects on the kitchen counter or dining room table...)

My Mom has planted by the moon all my life. I do it some and believe in it. Just sometimes have to plant when I have time and not when the moon says. My plans for next year is to try more OP tomato varieties. Plan on saving seeds from some of the OP's. I mulched heavy this year with good results so will continue that. May not plant any cabbage due to insect problems. No major changes here as I had a good year overall. JD

I'm going to try that pretty squash, Sunburst, the bright yellow patty pan/scallop with a green blossom end. That's a pretty one.
Also plan to plant my first Brandywine, and cardoons. I've always thought they look interesting.

Deborah,

i grew the Sunburst squash this year and, though pretty, it's absolutely tasteless... the only use to which i could put it was to stretch my grated zucchinis for fritter-making (i've frozen quite a few packages of pre-grated squash for winter fritters & zuke bread), but even then, i had to keep the proportion of Sunburst to a minimum for fear of rendering the batch... crummy. So, if it's for appearance sake, fine; if it's for food... i don't think it's worth the space.