Plan B, A Photo Essay
Potato buckets and container planting! Also known as 'Garden 2.0'!
Yesterday I went to town and, while I was there, picked up the hardware cloth and some burlap bags for the potato bucket project, both at TSC (Tractor Supply Company). This morning D produced a roll of hardware cloth (a type of wire mesh) and an entire bolt of burlap fabric from the depths of his stash in his mom's barn. WTF? The mesh I can understand but why does he have a bolt of burlap?! Right, so the mesh I bought is going back, although I'm keeping the 4 burlap bags as they could be useful. Then we got down to the construction process, based on the design at the Frugal Life. That link has some good information on how potatoes grow, so you might want to check it out if you're growing them at all - bucket or otherwise.
I outsourced the first two steps in the project - cutting holes in the sides of the buckets and cutting slices of PVC pipe for spacing/support. The original design called for tuna/cat food cans, but I certainly didn't have more than a couple empty ones laying around so PVC pipe was the easiest substitute that we came up with.
While D was cutting holes in perfectly good buckets, I dug up one of the potatoes from the garden. It's not black, just slimy and kinda mushy, and the combined smell of the mud, manure, and fertilizer is rather potent. Yes, yes, D - it would be hilarious if the ones in the garden still came up and the ones in the bucket grew too.
The bottom - in and around the pipe section - is the water reservoir. The mesh and burlap keep the soil up out of it. The hole on the side and the triangle section snipped out of the mesh allow a person to stick a finger in and check the water level, adding more as needed.
The burlap is cut larger than the diameter of the bucket to both cover the hole in the side and to keep the soil out of the water.
The seed potatoes I picked up yesterday! These cost me a grand total of $1.50 at Wolfe's greenhouse. I'll get them there again next year - not just for the price, but also because it was awesome being able to pick through the bin and pull out the ones with the best eye distribution and best eye to potato ratio. There were only three types to choose from (the ones I didn't get were Red Pontiac), but I believe they're good ones for this area, which certainly makes sense. The front two cartons are Kennebec and the back one is Yukon Gold.
The first bits of soil I was careful to get it inside the burlap and push the fabric out to the edges.
Once it's up to the top of the burlap and it's a few inches deep, it's time for the potatoes.
I used two seed pieces per bucket (except in the case of one Yukon Gold bucket which had three). They go in cut side down (the sprouting eyes go up - those are stems and leaves, not roots) and get covered with another layer of soil. As the plants grow, soil will get added so only the top few inches remain uncovered. Once the plants die back in the fall, all that additional soil will hold potatoes that grew up along the stem as it was covered, or hilled, up.
11 buckets, because that's how many we had handy - 9 Kennebec and 2 Yukon Gold.
After I had all the potato buckets assembled, I started in on the containers (there was much melodrama when I requested drainage holes in non-rusted washtubs). This is the deepest one and is housing two types of carrots, just to the right of the front greenhouse door.
From the left we have the potato overflow (there were still 6 Kennebec pieces and 2 Yukon Gold pieces after the buckets were together and I really didn't want to make more tomorrow), one with two types of radishes (with room for another planting in a couple of weeks), another with a few rows of lettuce, and, up front, a container that's destined to get beets transplanted into it (probably tomorrow).
A couple of hours (and a shower and a nap) later, it occurred to me that I was starting way too deep with the potato container. So, since then, I've gone out, removed the seed pieces, removed all but a few inches of soil, replaced the seed pieces, and covered it all back up.
This is the BM1 you hear me refer to. It's the same composition as a soilless seed starting mix and is what's in all the containers and potato buckets. This is a large, compressed bale which is 3.8 cubic feet as it's packaged. I went through this entire thing today. Really. That carrot container? Has a lot of volume in it!
Then I got to water everything in with the new love of my life. I picked this up when I got the hardware cloth and burlap at TSC yesterday. Easy to fill! Easy to carry! Easy to pour! *swoons* I may get another one when I take the hardware cloth back - literally so I have one for each hand when I have to truck water from the outside faucet rather than running the hose.
Behind it is the other snazzy new greenhouse addition - a tackle box. D picked up three of them at a yard sale very cheap (why would someone have three bright orange, brand new tackles boxes just laying around? Probably the same reason we do) and one has been appropriated for keeping tools and accessories dry in the greenhouse no matter what weather blows in through the screen doors.
Wow, that's a lot of pictures of not much. Here, have a couple more:
River had given up on the heat and was in her usual people watching spot on the back of the couch. "Why are you standing there? Why are you taking my picture? What did I do? Jack?! Help!"
"Don't y'all worry - them rabbits with their twitchy little noses show out from under this here shed and I'm on it." See, Anya just needed a beagle. She would have felt much better with Jack around.
Also, I want it to be known that I put on sunscreen today - twice! I'm still sunburnt though, as in OMG HOLY CRAP OWWWWW sunburnt on my shoulders. I don't know whether I put it on too late (possible - but, if so, I burnt fast), or if it was the sunscreen I used (two different ones, although both from last year), or if they just weren't strong enough. I'll assume operator error for the moment. Ouch.
I'm gonna go peruse my reading list(s) and make sure fandom hasn't imploded (again)... (er, as usual). :P
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)
Yesterday I went to town and, while I was there, picked up the hardware cloth and some burlap bags for the potato bucket project, both at TSC (Tractor Supply Company). This morning D produced a roll of hardware cloth (a type of wire mesh) and an entire bolt of burlap fabric from the depths of his stash in his mom's barn. WTF? The mesh I can understand but why does he have a bolt of burlap?! Right, so the mesh I bought is going back, although I'm keeping the 4 burlap bags as they could be useful. Then we got down to the construction process, based on the design at the Frugal Life. That link has some good information on how potatoes grow, so you might want to check it out if you're growing them at all - bucket or otherwise.
I outsourced the first two steps in the project - cutting holes in the sides of the buckets and cutting slices of PVC pipe for spacing/support. The original design called for tuna/cat food cans, but I certainly didn't have more than a couple empty ones laying around so PVC pipe was the easiest substitute that we came up with.
While D was cutting holes in perfectly good buckets, I dug up one of the potatoes from the garden. It's not black, just slimy and kinda mushy, and the combined smell of the mud, manure, and fertilizer is rather potent. Yes, yes, D - it would be hilarious if the ones in the garden still came up and the ones in the bucket grew too.
The bottom - in and around the pipe section - is the water reservoir. The mesh and burlap keep the soil up out of it. The hole on the side and the triangle section snipped out of the mesh allow a person to stick a finger in and check the water level, adding more as needed.
The burlap is cut larger than the diameter of the bucket to both cover the hole in the side and to keep the soil out of the water.
The seed potatoes I picked up yesterday! These cost me a grand total of $1.50 at Wolfe's greenhouse. I'll get them there again next year - not just for the price, but also because it was awesome being able to pick through the bin and pull out the ones with the best eye distribution and best eye to potato ratio. There were only three types to choose from (the ones I didn't get were Red Pontiac), but I believe they're good ones for this area, which certainly makes sense. The front two cartons are Kennebec and the back one is Yukon Gold.
The first bits of soil I was careful to get it inside the burlap and push the fabric out to the edges.
Once it's up to the top of the burlap and it's a few inches deep, it's time for the potatoes.
I used two seed pieces per bucket (except in the case of one Yukon Gold bucket which had three). They go in cut side down (the sprouting eyes go up - those are stems and leaves, not roots) and get covered with another layer of soil. As the plants grow, soil will get added so only the top few inches remain uncovered. Once the plants die back in the fall, all that additional soil will hold potatoes that grew up along the stem as it was covered, or hilled, up.
11 buckets, because that's how many we had handy - 9 Kennebec and 2 Yukon Gold.
After I had all the potato buckets assembled, I started in on the containers (there was much melodrama when I requested drainage holes in non-rusted washtubs). This is the deepest one and is housing two types of carrots, just to the right of the front greenhouse door.
From the left we have the potato overflow (there were still 6 Kennebec pieces and 2 Yukon Gold pieces after the buckets were together and I really didn't want to make more tomorrow), one with two types of radishes (with room for another planting in a couple of weeks), another with a few rows of lettuce, and, up front, a container that's destined to get beets transplanted into it (probably tomorrow).
A couple of hours (and a shower and a nap) later, it occurred to me that I was starting way too deep with the potato container. So, since then, I've gone out, removed the seed pieces, removed all but a few inches of soil, replaced the seed pieces, and covered it all back up.
This is the BM1 you hear me refer to. It's the same composition as a soilless seed starting mix and is what's in all the containers and potato buckets. This is a large, compressed bale which is 3.8 cubic feet as it's packaged. I went through this entire thing today. Really. That carrot container? Has a lot of volume in it!
Then I got to water everything in with the new love of my life. I picked this up when I got the hardware cloth and burlap at TSC yesterday. Easy to fill! Easy to carry! Easy to pour! *swoons* I may get another one when I take the hardware cloth back - literally so I have one for each hand when I have to truck water from the outside faucet rather than running the hose.
Behind it is the other snazzy new greenhouse addition - a tackle box. D picked up three of them at a yard sale very cheap (why would someone have three bright orange, brand new tackles boxes just laying around? Probably the same reason we do) and one has been appropriated for keeping tools and accessories dry in the greenhouse no matter what weather blows in through the screen doors.
Wow, that's a lot of pictures of not much. Here, have a couple more:
River had given up on the heat and was in her usual people watching spot on the back of the couch. "Why are you standing there? Why are you taking my picture? What did I do? Jack?! Help!"
"Don't y'all worry - them rabbits with their twitchy little noses show out from under this here shed and I'm on it." See, Anya just needed a beagle. She would have felt much better with Jack around.
Also, I want it to be known that I put on sunscreen today - twice! I'm still sunburnt though, as in OMG HOLY CRAP OWWWWW sunburnt on my shoulders. I don't know whether I put it on too late (possible - but, if so, I burnt fast), or if it was the sunscreen I used (two different ones, although both from last year), or if they just weren't strong enough. I'll assume operator error for the moment. Ouch.
I'm gonna go peruse my reading list(s) and make sure fandom hasn't imploded (again)... (er, as usual). :P
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)