I love potatoes. I love that they are the core of delicious foods like french fries, mashed potatoes, tater tots, baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato chips, scalloped potatoes, and oh my. Potatoes are obviously my favorite food.  When we lived in North Dakota as children, the farmers invited local families to their fields after the big potatoes had been harvested to pick through what was left.  We would find potatoes that ranged in sizes from golf balls to baseballs to bring home. In our cool cellar (it was North Dakota!), we would have potatoes all winter.

But I’ve never grown my own and am thinking that should change. They are pretty easy to grow, too.  From Grow It, Make It, Try It,

Ever had potatoes sprout before you’re ready to use them?? Don’t give them the heave ho!!

Leave them to sprout. Cut them up so that there’s one sprout coming from each piece. Pop them, sprout up in a large pot of compost.

Watch them sprout!! continue to build the soil up around the plants and you’ll have potatoes in no time!

Delicious!

Photo by Brett & Sue Coulstock.

Happy 1,000th post, Shakyard!

Two years ago, we all pitched in for Mother’s Day and gave my Mom and raised vegetable garden.  It was nice in that she is able to sit on the edge and pull weeds, water, and give her plants some TLC.  It cost us about $300 in all after putting in bag after bag of soil, buying plants, and more.

However, Barb Rosen with Hometalk was able to build one for a whole lot less by using her neighbor’s old window shutters,

You could do other configurations, but I used two shutters on each side and one-half a shutter for the ends. That used up all ten of the free shutters. Odds and ends of lumber stored in the garage rafters came down and became corner, end and middle supports. I even had enough wood screws from another project to use for this one!

Very nicely done for $0 cost!

Great idea to recycle old 2 liter soda bottles for miniature greenhouses!

While this might be designed for young children, seeing the growth of a plant from seed really is very interesting!

Growing strawberries, that sweet luscious fruit everyone loves, can have its challenges.  Weeds love taking over strawberry fields, and birds and other animals pluck away at and dine on the fruit.  So how can growing strawberries be made easier?  Try growing them in a cinder block!

You will want to put the cinder blocks so that the plants will get six to eight hours of direct sunlight a day.  According to ehow home, the hours of sunlight do not need to be consecutive, but aim for at least six hours of total sun exposure.

Fill the holes in the concrete blocks 3/4 of the way full with the soil mixture. Plant one or two strawberry plants in each concrete block. Position the seedlings so the crown –the part of the plant where the roots meet the stem — rests just at soil level and all roots are covered with soil. Fill in around the roots with fresh soil and firm them down with your hands to secure the plants.

Early spring is when you start planting strawberries, so get ready!

By the way, did you know strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside?

Grocery prices just kill me, so this may be the year that we plant some of our own vegetables.  I can almost taste a garden-grown fresh tomato already!  However, it looks like it will be the lettuce that I try my green thumb on.  Easy, affordable.  From Hot Coupon World,

If your family loves salads, lettuce is so easy to grow. The growing season can be very long, so planting lettuce could save you hundreds over buying bagged salad every night.  Lettuce comes in a wide array of varieties, so plant lettuce that’s going to give you good nutritional value over the iceberg type that is commonly found in bagged lettuce mixes.  If you get your lettuce in the ground now, you’ll have a harvest before Memorial Day.  And, lettuce is a cool-weather crop, so if you take care with your plants, and plant new seedlings every few weeks, you can have lettuce well into the fall. The average cost of a bagged lettuce is $2 for 12 ounces.  Between May through October, the savings for a family of four eating salad four nights a week is $200..

My bad. I prefer the iceberg lettuce!

Want to know how to make an African raised garden? Watch this great video with the how-to’s!

Even with Christmas just past, this video was too cute not to share!

Enjoy your weekend!

Making dirt is really not that hard. Making good dirt for gardening is also a not difficult!

Photo from Learn2Grow.