Do you have enough space in your garden to grow potatoes? If your answer is no, you might be surprised: you can grow potatoes anywhere by using containers!

Containers even keep your crop safe from marauding critters that like to dig them up and eat them (armadillos anyone?). There's also no hilling required, so there's less work. And there's no chance that you'll injure the potatoes with shovel or garden fork when you harvest them, because you simply dump out the container.

Are you convinced yet? You can even use empty feed sacks as your "containers" as well as trash cans and five-gallon buckets. I used a metal trash can last year and was very pleased with the results; this year I'm also using kitty litter buckets - because I need more potatoes.

To use any sort of container, you must put holes in the bottom for drainage. Potatoes like well-drained soil or they'll rot into a slimy, smelly mess. Hubby drilled holes in my cat litter buckets for me. If you're using feed sacks, poke holes in the bottom with a screwdriver, and roll the bags down a bit to make them more sturdy.

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Then put several inches of soil and compost on the bottom of the container. Nestle your seed potatoes into this soil and add a few more inches on top. (Oh, you need to "chit" the seed potatoes before planting: cut them into pieces with each piece having an "eye" or two, and let them dry out for a day or so.)

Eventually you'll see green leaves popping up through the soil. When the plants are about six inches tall, add more soil - or compost, autumn leaves, mulch, etc - right up to the bottom of the leaves. Let them grow again, and add more soil... and repeat until you get to the top of the container. If you're using feed sacks, unroll the sack as you add soil to make room for more dirt.

Of course, the deeper your container, the more potatoes you'll get in the end. New potatoes grow between the top of the soil and the seed potato at the bottom. My cat litter buckets probably won't yield as many potatoes as my trash can, but I have more buckets than trash cans.

When you water your potatoes, water until it runs freely out the holes in the bottom. If you're growing in buckets, leave about an inch of space at the top once you've filled the bucket with soil so it will be easy to water properly.

Eventually your potato plants will flower, and after that the leaves will die back. Your potatoes are ready to harvest at this point. Just dump out your container and gather your potatoes. I dump the soil from my containers on my compost pile, clean my containers well, and use new soil the following year.

Don't let your lack of garden space stop you from growing potatoes. You can grow them anywhere, even on a deck or concrete patio. Gather some buckets and get ready to plant.





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