In the past we’ve always grown our potatoes directly into the ground. But this year we got a little crazy in our thinking and tried them out in our raised beds and wouldn’t you know, they are our most successful potatoes to date. Well, at least the tops of the potatoes are the most successful, who knows what’s going on underground. We ordered our potatoes (and shallots) from Milk Ranch as we do most years. What you are looking at here are the Rose Finn Apple potatoes and behind that are small square beds of Russet Norkatah and Red Gold. We planted all of these on February 27th and have mounded them up a few times since they’ve sprouted.
If you are new to potatoes, you should download this great potato growing guide straight from Milk Ranch themselves.
We also ordered shallots this year. We’ve never grown them before, but we liked the name of them. Old German Shallots. In my imaginative mind, I had half hoped they would sprout up with beer steins and big strawberry blond beards, but alas, all we are getting are leaves. They are pretty though. Fast Grow the Weeds recently wrote about her shallots too. Can’t wait to see these when they are ready. Shallots are something we are frequently buying so it will be nice to have them from our own garden this year.
How about you? Any shallots or potatoes in your garden this year?
Both! I actually just pulled a bunch of shallots yesterday. I have so many right now! I let them go to seed and I added some of the clippings to some fennel flowers and kale flowers and created a sweet bouquet of gone to seed edibles. So pretty!
egads! I am late to the party again…only just getting the yukon golds and red pontaics in the ground now. no shallots alas! But got some fresh purple orach seed from these folks\
http://www.territorialseed.com/product/973/79 Want some? apparently very prolific and does well in the heat. Which hopefully will cool off soon. Yikes, it is only April but feels liek August.
Yes, mims, this heat is aweful! It’s just too early. That purple orach sounds very interesting! Thank you for the offer to share, but if you can believe it, we have all of our beds full now! Scott went to town this weekend with the seed sowing. Let me know how it goes and we’ll put it on the list for next year!
Thank you for the reference to the potato growing guide; will come in handy because I’m trying potatoes for the first time this year, and shallots, too! I read somewhere that you can plant shallots you buy in the grocery store, so I bought a couple of packages of Melissa’s, and plan to try those.
I think I’m going to have to put in another raised bed …
Hi Linda – There never seems to be enough room to grow everything, is there?
I ordered seed potatoes on time but haven’t planted them yet! ack! I need to figure out where to put them this year, I bumped them out of their old spot in favor of dahlias. Mine must go in raised beds or the gophers get them before I do. Me thinks a new bed is in order! Your garden is looking so lush! Ours here in the Salinas Valley is awash in a massive heat wave, I’ve been sneaking out of bed the past few mornings to water early to beat the heat!
Erin, we’ve been getting that heat wave too. This picture was taken last week before this heat has torched everything!
sjones, I remember your spud digging post from last year, isn’t that the one where you grabbed the mouse instead?
I’m resting my potato spot this year and I’ll miss them! I did read somewhere about a pretty cool way to grow them in a slatted bin. I may try that next year. I’ll miss digging for spuds!
This is my 1st year growing potatoes and I’m glad I found you as a reference. Mounding I’ve read about; but I was afraid to damage the beautiful greens I have on my Yukon Golds and Red potatoes. I’ll follow the link you gave to help me stiffen up my spine and mound my potatoes.
Hi maybelline, you are right, it seems really wrong to cover those nice green plants up with dirt, but it works! Let me know how your potatoes turn out!
I checked back to see when I planted my potatoes (February 21). Yesterday, I took a peek under my Yukons to see what I could see. Voila! I have potatoes. Today, I mounded. Thanks for the encouragement.
You garden looks beautiful. We haven’t planted a garden this year but maybe we’ll plant some herbs within the next week. There’s nothing like picking your own fresh herbs, fruits and veggies from our own garden.
Ug! I planted my potatoes in raised beds last year and it was the first time I got nothing whatsoever. Back to sneaking them in the flowers beds this year.
Well, I mounded last week. This week I have brown spot. Have you ever experienced this fungus? What do you use? Take a look at some of the potato pix I posted on my blogspot.