Growing Potatoes in a Garbage Can

I have to admit, this wasn't my idea.  I got the idea from The Frugal Greenish Mama blog, who is growing potatoes in a garbage can for the first time herself.  I've always wanted to grow potatoes and it just always seemed too hard, but with this system, I'm sold! Jon has always wanted to grow blue potatoes, so that's what we planted.  Check out these blue spuds!

I discussed this with my neighbor who grew potatoes in her garden last year, and she agreed that planting potatoes in a garbage can is brilliant.  The brilliant part is at harvest time - instead of digging up potatoes and rooting through the ground, you lay out a tarp, dump the can, and pick out the potatoes.  The rest goes into your compost bin or as topsoil on your garden.

Here are the basic steps,  but to really appreciate the process so far, you should check out the pictures!   Click through them below, or go to our blog to see them in order...

• We started with blue seed potatoes cut into pieces
• We let them cure overnight on the windowsill
• Planted them in a garbage can
• About three weeks later we had sprouts
• Four days later they were clearly plants
• About a week later we started adding dirt, and they kept growing....
• And growing and growing
• By the end of June, we had beautiful potato blossoms

Happy Greening!

Alicia