Replies

I don't spend a lot of time on a vegetable garden. I plant primarily heirloom tomatoes .. they are a pain compared to the hybrids with disease tolerance .. but the taste is where most heirlooms excel. An old standard “Rutgers” may be my favorite. This year I threw in some green beans, and always 2 dozen Bell Peppers and a dozen banana peppers.

I grow potatoes in 5 Gallon buckets, but I confess, I do so more for the foliage. Potatoes spilling out of a bucket is a marvelous backdrop for my perennial beds. different textures make the Achille, coreopsis, roses, salvia and joe pyweed “pop out” And then of course in Sept, I dump the buckets and have no dig potatoes. The potatoes are started in 3” of soil in the bucket, as the plant grows every 3” I cover it up with compost until the bucket can't hold any more. I've got pot. plants that are a good 18” out of the buckets now.

I'm a lazy fat boy .. I don't dig potatoes, but oh my ... the taste of fresh new potatoes. Incredible.

I hope global warming takes hold ... I'm tired of covering plants this late in the season. May 11th is our frost free date.

Good luck with your gardening this weekend.

79 posted on 05/22/2009 8:51:00 AM PDT by HiramQuick (work harder ... welfare recipients depend on you!)

Those 5 gallon buckets for potatoes sounds good. They would be perfect for me. Can I use any type of potato or do I need to use a seed potato? I sure do like new red potatoes!

80 posted on 05/22/2009 9:14:15 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)

Thanks for the info-what an awesome way to grow taters. I’m
going to try my hand at sweet taters this year.

My biggest problem with tomatoes is blight. It seems that living in Nashville, TN it comes with the territory. I have had people tell me that if you are going to grow tomatoes in tennessee then you have to continually spray with daconil. Ugh.

I’ve had the most luck growing the heirloom “mortgage lifter”. Not a pretty plant but boy it can produce!

Thanks for the tater growing idea.

mary

82 posted on 05/22/2009 9:33:01 AM PDT by murrie (For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son..........)

The potatoes are started in 3” of soil in the bucket, as the plant grows every 3” I cover it up with compost until the bucket can't hold any more.

Try that method with stacks of old tires.

121 posted on 05/22/2009 6:08:00 PM PDT by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794