I’ve grown potatoes before and they are soooo much fun!  It is like digging for buried treasure.  You just never know what you are going to get!  I think kids would get an absolute kick out of it.  Our garden space is so limited though that I didn’t want to use the space for them, so this year I’m planting them in 5 gallon buckets.  Not at all a new idea and mixed reviews/experiments online, but I’ll give it a shot.

During mama free time, aka nap time, I grabbed my two favorite gardening books and headed outside.

The sun felt so good and as always I am thrilled to be putting things in the ground.

First things first, I had to drill holes in the bottom of my buckets.  I got buckets from Tony’s grandpa, but decided I probably shouldn’t be growing our food in “joint compound” and “paint” buckets.  Bummer.  My bucket numbers just dwindled to 3.  Carry on.  Found Tony’s drill in the basement.  It can’t be that hard.  Picked a drill bit.  (I think that’s what those are called…)  Pull the trigger.  Push down.  Sweet!  I felt pretty cocky now.  Although I can’t tell you how many times when I pulled the drill back up the bit stayed in the bucket.  ahem…   whatever.)

Filled the bucket less than 1/3 full with my FREE compost from the city landfill.  The “help” was not impressed with my choice of shovel.  It was convenient.  Closer than the garage.

These are my lovely seed potatoes that Elias, Espen and I picked up from the local nursery earlier in the morning.  (Elias LOVED the nursery!  Flowers, plants, water…we had a blast.)   I also purchased more herb seeds.  Lemon balm, rosemary, dill, oregano, and mint.  Cooking with herbs is a favorite around here.  (Cilantro, basil, and parsley already planted.  Hoping my thyme survived the winter and will plant sage in the garden area again since Tony took it out a couple years ago.  I missed it last summer.)

 I cut my potatoes, making sure to keep 2-3 eyes on each chunk and then let the cut parts dry over a bit.  I put a couple in each bucket.  That might be overcrowding a little…not really sure…but remember my bucket count got slashed so space is again an issue.

I then covered them with about 3 inches more soil/compost.  Now the plan is that you keep covering the plant with more dirt as it grows, leaving about 4-6 inches of plant out of the soil.  The plant parts that you bury will grow potatoes.  So I’ve heard.  And hope.  Then you just dump the bucket over when the season is over and have a pile of potatoes sitting at your feet.  (I guess that kind of defeats the digging for treasure idea with the kids but when space is limited you do what you have to.  Anyone have like 20 acres of land they want to give me??!!  With some woods and waterfront?  And a quaint little cottage?  Just thought I’d ask…)

There you have it!  My bucket potatoes.  I believe keeping them watered properly will be the biggest trick.  Fingers crossed that this will be a success!