Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
Well my whole garden isn’t in the trashcan. Just my potatoes & sweet potatoes. Here is the June update on my crowded garden!
My garden is small so I am always up for creative ideas to save space. After looking at several different bloggers garden ideas, I decided to try planting potatoes in a trashcan. When I saw potato plants at the green house when I bought the rest of my plants I was overjoyed!
The beginning of June was a bit late I knew to plant potatoes. I believe that they like the cooler weather to get started(reason I believe this later on in the post).
Planting Process
- Take an old trashcan and drilled holes in the sides & bottom. This allows extra rain water to exit the trashcan! You don’t want to drown the plants!
- Line the bottom of the can with some gravel so that the dirt wouldn’t clog the holes. I do this in my smaller pots too!
- Add soil about 1/3 of the way up trashcan & plant your plants.
Up to this point I had great success! Unfortunately I had other responsibilities call me away. It rained non stop for several days and then was VERY hot right after. My potato plants were not happy with their move. I lost all but one!
I had didn’t have time to plant kept my sweet potato plants inside. So instead of putting them in their own trashcan I decided to put them with the lone potato plant. We will see how that works.
I planted them in a smaller pot & hardened them off by putting them out in the shade and then gradually in more sun for several days. This seemed to help acclimate them & they are thriving!
As the plants grow I will be adding more soil to cover the stems and leaves. You should leave 4-6 inches above the soil. Once the plants reach the top of the trashcan you can just let the plant grow. I am hoping for a bunch of sweet potatoes & a few regular potatoes too! I will update at harvest time in the fall!
***Update & confession time. I haven’t actually looked in in the trashcan for a week or more while. The sweet potatoes have reached the top & are climbing the fence. The potato plant looks dead so we will see what happens. Good thing I love sweet potatoes more than potatoes!
What a great way to plant potatoes! I too have a smaller garden, and love finding ways to fit things in, I tried potatoes once in a container, but didnt have enough drainage so they got too soaked, I will have to give your idea a try next year. Sweet potatoes would be really fun to try also. :)
ReplyDelete