Photo from 1916 home

I have had a garden my whole life.  As a child I can remember sitting on the bottom of my sliding board and watching my parents and sister toiling away in the garden. ( I said I have always HAD a garden… not always WORKED a garden!)  But now that I am a home owner and a parent I want to get my hands dirty in the soil and see what I can grow.  We do the ‘normal things’.  Tomatoes, Peppers, Peas, herbs and the occasional egg plant. I tried onions in the past and I got nothing.  I think they rotted.  But this year I found a way to grow potatoes in a garbage can!!!  I am just super excited!

HERE is a link to an e-how article on how to do it.

The long and short of it is:

• Use a clean garbage can with holes in the bottom and part way up the sides (for drainage…you old beat up one is fine as long as you bleach it out first)
• Use ‘seed’ potatoes.  You can’t use a grocery store bought potato because you can’t tell if they are carrying a funk of any sort.
• Put 6 inches of potting soil and a handful of holly tone (high acid).
• Plant 2-3 of the ‘seed’ potatoes and cover with a few inches of soil.
• As they sprout keep covering with more soil.  Add leaves and mulch to increase the acid in the soil.  The potatoes will grow as your sprouts grow up.
• Once the leaves die back you let them sit in the soil for about 3 weeks and then flip the can over and harvest.

Now there are longer explanations of these steps on various websites, and I encourage you to go find them, but this should give you an idea of how you can grow your own potatoes even if you don’t have a spot for a garden!

I think this would be an excellent project for kids who live in a city and don’t have much space for a garden.

The above picture is from 1916 blog spot and I think it is an excellent representation of how the potatoes grow in the can.  What I think is the most beautiful about growing them in a garbage can is that you don’t have to dig them up!!  Just flip the can over when it is time to harvest.  The above picture looks very fancy and makes it super easy to see your potatoes as they grow.

We are going to try 2 different varieties of potatoes this year.  I have high hopes!  My youngest and I bought yukon gold potato and a red variety.  We got 5 seeds for $5.  I am hoping out $10 investment will turn out about 2 bushels of potatoes!  I will let you know as we progress. 

Are you going to give this a try? Let me know what you think and how you make out with this little penny pinching project.

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