I Dress Myself

Vertical Potatoes

I must admit I haven't had a chance to try this out yet (my food growing achievements so far amount to a herb box in my living room window and a chili plant at the studio which we've just noticed today has yet another chili on it, great stuff!), however I know people who have. This potato growing method enables you to grow your own potatoes even if you only have a piece of concrete for a garden. I'll have to wait until spring to give it a go now.

To start with you need to find some sort of container to grow your potatoes in. A large bag or sack is best as this will give you more control over how much sunlight the leaves will get. Any large container is okay to use so long as it isn't too deep as sunlight needs to reach the potato leaves. Whatever you're using needs to have holes in the bottom for water to drain. Not a problem if you're using a hessian sack or other porous bags but if your using a non porous you will need to drill quite a few holes in the bottom.

Once you've sorted yourself out with a container you need to line the bottom with about 10cm of broken bits of crockery followed by about 15cm of compost. Lay a few seed potatoes, sprouts pointing upwards, on top and cover with more compost. Water well.

As the foliage starts to grow lift up the walls of your sack (if you're using one) and add more compost and remember to keep watering (this is normally where I go wrong)! Continue in this manner and in a few months you should have reached the top of the container and be ready to harvest your first crop.

I'm looking forward to a summer full of homegrown homemade chips.

Posted in Other Stuff by Helen on Friday 31 October 2008