Thank you for visiting Little House in the Suburbs. Please subscribe and you'll get great simple living tips and how-to articles delivered to your inbox, for free!
The biggest headache of raised bed gardening is root crops. Even if you could build a box deep enough for them, you couldn’t rotate….unless ALL your boxes are that deep, which is PRICEY if you’re buying your dirt.
So, here’s what we’re a-gonna do:
I built myself a little 2ft x2ft -ish box from boards I had lying around. Then I plopped it right on top of my raised bed soil and filled it with dirt. Now my bed is well over a foot deep. Next year, I can put it in a different bed and do it all again. And for you guys that know the glory of hilling up your potatoes, you can make a few of these and set another box on when the plant is ready to be hilled and fill IT with dirt.
TL, the builder of the two of us, suggested that for sturdy stacking boxes, you nail two foot 2×2′s in the inside corners of the first mini box so the others can slide on. I was going to do that, but I ran out of nails.
Ivory
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
genius. I just pile grass clippings on top of my potatoes. My husband though I was exaggerating when I told him my taters would be 3 feet high by the end of the summer. I like the box idea, very clever for those raised beds. Also like the barrel idea for taters, if it grows taters, and not squash…
Tipnut.com has a great idea for growing potatoes in 4sq ft. by building a box that you add to as the potatoes grow. Here is the link: http://tipnut.com/grow-potatoes/
Thank you!
I’ve been missing your posts. I think maybe your feed is broken. I read using google reader and it hasn’t given me any new posts for you since June 2nd. I’ll try to re-subscribe, but ya might wanna check your feed.
Soo totally happy you’re still here!!!
Hmm! Curiouser and curiouser. I resubscribed successfully. But google didn’t recognize that I was already subscribed. Don’t know why that would happen. Anyway, I’m glad to be able to still read your posts.
I’m looking forward to planting potatoes after we move. Woohoo!
We’re growing our ‘taters in stacks of old tires. They are easy to find (the alleyways in our hood ALWAYS have a tire laying around), you can add them along with soil as the plants grow. Then you can ninja kick the pile over when harvest comes. Well, that’s how it’s going to go down in my mind.
@KBO– YES!!! I love it.
@Mother Hen–It’s my fault. I just figured out this morning that I had the feedburner link still hooked to the old host. Duh. Tell me if it still doesn’t work.
thanx, ivorysoap76! i have been looking forward to this post sicne you mentioned it a few weeks ago and now i am ready to start my potato box! i wonder if i can just plant potatos from my pantry?
A BIG THANKS! I was just telling my husband (and I wrote on my blog) that I wanted to grow my taters differently next year but I needed to figure out how-and what a great idea! I have raised beds too. P.S. I have a TL too!
Yeah, it’s way too late here for regular potatoes, but I’m jazzed about next year!
We are growing potatoes in our backyard this year using old tires. We just keep stacking and stacking and by the end of summer we will have about 5 feet of root with potatoes growing on them. Will let you know how they come out.
@ Fran AWESOME!!!
Ivory, thanks so much for the terrific instructions. Do you think it is too late to plant potatoes in Eastern Washington?
I don’t know. You’ll have to call your local nursery and ask. The books say it’s too late in my area, but my old farmer dude that runs the farm supply says that’s foolishness. You need an old farmer dude.
We don’t build raised beds for our potatoes, the wood is too precious for other beds. Instead we get a couple of free used tires, lay the first one on the ground and fill it with dirt and plant. Once the leaves are well out of the ground put another tire on top and fill it with more dirt (don’t cover the leaves completely though). Doing this 3 or 4 tires high and you can easily have 100 pounds of potatoes in a very small space.
We also use the raised tires with cattle fencing in a column shape placed inside the tire for tomatoes and other climbing vegetables.
@Stephen–These were all bottom chunks of a short fence. I would love to do tires, but I just don’t have any. But eighty 1.65ft pieces of board? That I had. HA!
I have been wanting to put in a raised bed and wondered what to do about the root vegies. Thankyou so much for this great idea. I’m loving the tire idea too. I should have 4 old ones by next year. —-Krystal
I like the tires too, ‘cept for the shape. Now if tires were SQUARE….
Try growing potatoes in a large trash can. Start low with planting. As the plant grows add dirt. When full and plant is at top and time for harvest you will have a can of potatoes. Just tip it over and dig them out. Don’t forget drain holes on the bottom.
I like the idea of re-using old tires but I would be concerned about the tires breaking down over time and leaching into the soil, especially if you are eating what’s in the soil. Also, the soil in the tires becomes hotter than beds made of wood or block, especially out here in the Southwest where I live.
Living in the wine country in California, I am able to get 3/4 wine barrels.
These work great for potato crops. start them low and keep adding soil. The barrels look so nice edging out the garden.
Interesting idea, building a box.
I grew potatoes this year for the first time in bags that I made from landscape cloth.
Here is a link to my blog post about it if you’re interested.
http://www.redroofbluedoor.com/2011/09/05/potatoes/
{ 1 trackback }