It's the end of July and all the hard work you have put into your vegetable garden is about to pay off. Too late for the early harvest of garlic and peas and too early for your later harvests of corn and squash, we have our potato harvest. In zone 7a, where the Boozie Bee garden is, potatoes can be harvested as early as July 15th. I was a little later harvesting some potatoes this year but this was a cold spring and early summer.
Planting potatoes
I plant my potatoes in these convenient garden bags. They are perfect for growing potatoes, especially in my sized garden. Potatoes are pretty easy to grow, I have even heard of people planting potatoes in garbage bags. I plant my potatoes in March, please make sure to check your zone for proper planting times. As you can see in the image to the left, the bag is only about 1/4 to 1/3 full of organic soil. As your potato plants grow, you will add soil slowly to your pot until your pot is full. You'll see in the image to left, I let these grow a little more before I added enough soil to just cover the stalks leaving most of the greens showing. Don't worry you can mostly cover the greens and they will still continue to grow well. They will continue to grow taller throughout the spring and early summer. Then, it's harvest time!
Harvesting your potatoes
With all that is happening in the garden & in life, I find that setting yearly reminders on my phone help me keep track of all I have to do. However, potatoes will really tell you when it is time to harvest. Never underestimate how important it is to just observe your garden, not only does it feel serene but you can also learn a lot about what is happening with your plants. When your potatoes big beautiful bushy greens start to yellow and fall over it is time! Check the gallery below for an image of when to harvest, the 1st image is a bushy not yet ready potato plant, the 2nd and 3rd are telling you "Harvest me!" First things first, don't water your potatoes for two or three days before you harvest. Not watering encourages the potato skins to harden a little bit, making it less likely that the skins will tear as harvesting. If you grow your potatoes directly in the garden, a garden fork is one of the best tools to use. Just be gentle so as to not to spear your potatoes, but even if you do there is hope read on to find out. If you plant in bags like I do, you can make quick work of your harvest. Clean up, on the other hand, can take some time. In images 3 through 6 you can see my harvesting set up, I lay out a tarp and just dump the bag out. As you sift through the soil most of the potatoes will literally fall off the vine, again shouting at you that they are ready. Rinse your potatoes and get ready for garden fresh potatoes. I have so many potatoes this year, I am thinking about hosting a potato party! If you are thinking, "How am I going to use all these potatoes?" Don't forget to check out my new recipe posted this week, in the dropdown of the tab Harvesting. As you harvest, note that you will probably come across a few potatoes that are just too small or other wised damaged, maybe by your garden fork, maybe by something else. Do not fear these are not food waste destined for your compost, check out the next section to see why.
A second harvest!
Way too small to be eaten, these little guys will have a second life. I set aside the little potatoes and anything that looks too damaged to be eaten and let them dry a bit. You can replant these little guys in August for a Fall harvest. Just plant the same way you did in Spring, and get ready for more potatoes!
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