Potato Tower Experiment

So I've been reading on Pinterest, my favorite site of course, on how to grow potatoes utilizing the "tower" method.  There are many different opinions on this subject, however I've combined some, and just made my own version so here it goes.  I bought some fencing wire, which really is dangerous by the way, it has thorns and prickers on them so USE GLOVES!  After clearing the bottom of the area out, I placed a nice bed of hay on the bottom, made like a bowl out of the hay, and layered in some compost I bought from Green Planit.  I did not add any ammendments, manure etc, just simply the compost. 

A few days prior, I bought a bag of red seed potatoes from the local Wal-Mart, cut these up into cubes, making sure each cube had at least 2 eyes on the potatoes.  Most had already started to sprout, making this task easier than I had anticipated.  I placed the cubes in a circular pattern around the compost I had placed over the hay, making sure to face the eyes outward towards the wire.  I then followed the same pattern, of hay, compost, potatoes, hay compost, potatoes etc. until I had not more potato sets left.  I toppoed it all of with some more compost, and then hay and watered the devil out of it after each layer of potatoes.  Below is the picture of the finished potato tower. 

 

February 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the potato tower as of March 23, 2013.  The potatoes are growing up and as they grow, I will continue to add some compost, and hay, layering just like before.  Supposidly this will increase the yeild of potatoes.  Time will tell.









 

What's going on in the garden

Well things are really shaping up in the springtime garden. The tomatoes, started from seed, have really taken off and have flowers and baby tomatoes all over the plants. I've prunes all the branches below the first set of fruit and am really keeping a diligent eye out for fungus and insects.

As you can see, the squash is perfect for picking.

Extra, Extra Read All About It!!

Last week I had a visit from a news reporter from the Charlotte Sun-Hearald Newspaper.  She was interested in my garden, and had heard about me from a local worm farmer (Greenleaf Worm Farm), who had happened to see my garden.  Anyway, she must have been impressed with it, because they wanted to do a piece about local vegetable gardening, and were especially interested in my organic gardening methods.  Now, you have to understand, that I've just begun my vegetable gardening journey, and although I did make it into a business, I really haven't had much success so far with selling any of my product, but will keep plodding along.  I've done so much research, and have made so many wonderful contacts throughout the county, as I've mentioned in previous posts, and feel so strongly about sharing all that I've learned with those who wish to grow veggies in this rather challenging climate.  Hope I'm helping everyone, and that they are benefiting from all that I've done.

So I'm sharing the article here, and hope you enjoy the read!

Here is the link to the garden article:

http://scc.eed.sunnewspapers.net/Olive/ODE/charlotte_sun/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=U0NDLzIwMTMvMDIvMjA.&pageno=NTg.&entity=QXIwNTgwNg..&view=ZW50aXR5