the red door homestead: Potato Farmin', The Trench Method

Hey y'all! Okay, so I don't really talk like that normally (although, the other day when we were all having supper, I was asking a question to everyone and unintentionally used the "word" jy-all- pronounced jawl, J just looked at me and said, "Did you really just say jy'all?" I guess that's what happens when your in-laws are from the south) Anyway, I felt since I live in the "country" I should use this sort of lingo. Alright, now to the point of this post. For the past few days, J and I have been working tirelessly on planting our taters, and last night we finally finished planting some via the trench method. Now if you don't know what the trench method is, I will explain. First, obviously, you must dig trenches. The width should be about 30 inches (we just measured two lengths of J's shoe) and the length just depends on how many potatoes you are wanting to plant. For us, our trenches were just under 40 feet long. For the depth, we just measured one shoe length down.

You want to dig two trenches and then pile the dirt up in the middle. The purpose of the trench method is to allow water to fill the trenches. You may ask, "Won't the trenches fill with water and soak the potatoes?" No, they won't. This is because you fill the trenches with well drained soil and materials. For example, after we dug our trenches, we filled ours about halfway full with dried horse manure. Horse manure is excellent for drainage and will keep the potatoes from drowning. Next, we put a thin layer of dirt back on top of the horse manure. The purpose of this is so that the potatoes can root into the ground more quickly. After that, you can then plant them taters! Spacing is about one foot apart. (We just used one shoe length.) Make sure that the sprouts coming off the potatoes are facing upwards- the sprouts are what produce the foliage and flowers. Excited to finally plant the potatoes (I tell ya, digging trenches is exhausting!) Oh, and please excuse my crazy hair, it's just how I roll...out of bed, without ever really "doing" my hair.

After you plant the potatoes, you should water them lightly. Next, cover them with dirt, and water again. We are fortunate to have a creek right behind the garden, where we can "harvest" water for the garden. Ma and Pa Wilder...

We are going to mulch our potatoes with more horse manure and straw. And it's as easy as that! Okay, so it's not super easy, but it is one of the better methods. If you do any research on planting potatoes, you will soon realize that there are a TON of different ways to plant potatoes. From planting in five gallon buckets, to trash cans, to just throwing them on the ground, there are a lot of options out there. J and I are going to plant the rest of our potatoes via the ground method. Meaning, you just plant them on the ground and mulch on top of them. Well, I am getting pretty anxious sitting here, thinking about what I need to get done today... planting the rest of the potatoes,harvesting straw for mulching, building a raised bed for our corn, and planting it. Anyone wanna join me? Oh, and here's the pictures I couldn't load the other day... Wild dandelion and fireweed salad. YUM!