I am far from an authority on this practice. I almost never try anything different but earlier, on this thread, I believe, there was much discussion about planting potatoes in straw, old tires and all manner of things and gradually building up the surrounding structure to encourage the potatoes to continually put out roots (and more potatoes) as the potato plant grows taller and taller. As I had previously discontinued planting potatoes because of the Colorado Beetle, I decided to give it a go. So far, I have been pleased with the progress. The proof of the pudding will be when I lift the buckets and see the harvest. Of course, this method eliminates the tedious job of digging (I have to admit though that I love digging those gems out of the ground.) Also, I have my buckets lined up along the edge of the garden so they are on top of the grass and not suffering from all this rain (although I’m sure that at this point, they would benefit greatly from some good, hot sun.) Another advantage, as I see it, is that should they ever need watering, I can just aim the hose in each bucket and give them a good soaking.
As I said, this is a first for me, but so far, I am more than pleased and will be experimenting another year with other items (tomatoes, cukes and squash) if I’m still able to garden. (oh how upset that phrase makes my children)
A neighbor who had to give up gardening because of cancer gave me all his buckets with the bottoms already cut out so I have many many buckets to play with.