HiveGarden

Growing Potatoes At Home Using Local Resources Part III: Growing, Nurturing, Harvesting

This is the third and final part depicting - mainly in pictures - my experiment to grow tatties in the front garden. Links to earlier parts where I cleared the ground, made it dog-proof, constructed a stone terrace and planted the tatties, are below:

May 2021

I pick up again just as the little potato shoots are making themselves known. How exciting!

June 2021

As May rolls into June, and the little ones grow to a few inches in height, I earth them up with a mixture of compost and the groovy horseshit I had gathered from the bridal paths nearby. This is to give them more space in which to multiply, for the original soil has a lot of clay and is pretty dense. A dung beetle, lost and far from home, trudges through the poop.

I repeat the earthing-up process two or three times as required, delighting in the growth of the little tatties. @flamistan watches from her spot under the hedge, on the other side of the dog-proof fence.

July 2021

The Summer is now high and the plants keep getting bigger and bigger, their leaves catching the rays and strengthening the stems. These guys are thirsty and the number of water buckets required to satisfy them keeps increasing. I eventually locate the garden hose and that saves me a lot of energy.

August 2021

Sun, water and TLC have resulted in some pretty filled-out potato plants which reach up to and above chest height. The potatoes come into flower and the plants are at their peak, a very fine sight.

However, all things pass! Once the flowers die the plant itself begins to wind down and the leaves start to wither. The withering of the plants mean harvest time for Barge. I dig into the soil, taking a few plants at a time and having great fun seeing the layers of tatties strung together. At a rough estimate I got around 40-50 kilos of tatties from the 30-odd plants I had growing in the ground, boxes and bags.

NOWvember 2021

And I have still got some left! They'll probably last until the end of the year and they are YUM!

All images @barge | Thanks for visiting 🙏

Camera	Nikon D200
Lens	Nikon AF-S 40mm f2.8 MG
Location	Edinburgh, Scotland

Comments · 10

@erh.germany(68)· 1728d
What a good read. Thank you for the effort.

You mentioned that the plants needed lots of water. I'm almost sure you know this, but have you thought about covering the soil, perhaps with bark mulch (don't know if this is good, but have seen it done more often) or even planting the potatoes inside other plants?

I made an interesting discovery this year. I took two bought pots of basil outside and planted one pot in the soil in the middle of the flower bed we had established, where I thought it had little chance of survival (ignorant as I am) and the other in a pot outside the front door, along with some mini roses. The basil plant I put in the soil with the others in the bed already looked very battered and was getting yellow leaves.

To my great astonishment, however, the plant recovered and even got very tight and firm stems. Embedded and almost overgrown by the other flowers, it sprouted beautifully and the leaves became firm and large again. The other one in the pot in front of the door didn't fare very well, although I watered it, it didn't really want to grow and since it wasn't surrounded by very many other plants, it ran out of water very quickly.

I thought I'd share this experience, it seems to be properly housed here. I remember the big potato field in our garden when I was a child. We never needed to buy any.

Bye from Germany
@samsmith1971(70)· 1734d
oh man, these look delish...and you wrote so engagingly about...potatoes! wow, you got beautiful plants and an amazing crop. So do you not keep covering your tattie plants as they grow? I read that you need to do this but maybe that's just nonsense lol. I bought some potato grow bags (those stand up canvas type things) ...I wonder how well that will work compared to the open ground? I'll definitely have to read more of your stuff @barge. I think I'm going to enjoy being friends with @flamistan's hyumi ;-)
@futuremind(73)· 1735d
Hey bro,

I really love this potato gardening post. The way you showed the progression of growth with the time lapse of photos is really cool, and the visual aspects are really beautiful and magical as always.

I'm a huge potato lover myself and these potatoes look so healthy and delicious. You really know your stuff when it comes to potato gardening!

Cool photo of @flamistan peeking out at Hyumi @barge too haha. ;D

Thank you for sharing with us. 🤗
@amberyooper(71)· 1738d
You had a good crop of potatoes this past year! Potatoes are one of my favorite food crops to grow, and to eat, of course.
@gardenhive(70)· 1739d
^{![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/gardenhive/23tbKBMSNnwoVhi9gNNj3KsX2UY1obeck4HpzbRpZcg7gMnwgtLQrnXPgTLvJxzd7Rwvz.png)
**You've been curated by @gardenhive on behalf of the [HIVE GARDEN COMMUNITY](https://peakd.com/c/hive-140635/created)! We support gardening, homesteading, cannabis growers, permaculture and other garden related content. Delegations to the curation account, @gardenhive, are welcome! Find our community [here](https://peakd.com/c/hive-140635/created)!**}
@afterglow(74)· 1740d
These potatoes look very delicious. Greetings from the Philippines!
@camuel(69)· 1740d
Love it! Great photo essay Barge!
@aswita(79)· 1740d
It must be very nice to enjoy vegetables from your own garden, you can feel the sweat drops that have been passed for quite a long time. But after enjoying it, we will be very grateful to be able to enjoy it. Thankyou for sharing :)
@heskay(69)· 1741d
Wao! My very 1st time of seeing how this potatoes are planted. Thanks for sharing
@pavanjr(68)· 1741d
It's amazing how you have the whole process from planting to harvest, with dates and good pictures. I love potatoes and I know how difficult it can be to harvest them, depending on the weather and conditions of course.

I love this post and missed your pictures, my friend. Greetings and blessings ☺️