In a recent post I whined a little bit about not being able to grow leafy green vegetables or tomatoes in a hot dry garden. I even gave examples of a couple of failures and recommended focusing more on the fruit trees that thrive in desert-like climates.
Well, this post is about Success with Potatoes.
And for evidence I offer my niece’s pot garden. She and her husband — actually he is the one who does most of the gardening–planted potatoes in a 8 gallon pink plastic pot a year and a half ago at the suggestion of an English friend. Much to their surprise, it has been producing potatoes for them continuously. They have never pulled the plant up; the potatoes seem to rise to the surface where they harvest them.
During this time the potato plant grew big and healthy in its pot in a semi-shady location. Then under the scorching 110+ degree (F) (43 Celcius) heat earlier this year, the plant faded back only to revive when the heat cooled back down into the 90s. Of course, it was tucked back into full shade when the weather really heated up. And they have 2 water monitors in the shape of butterflies in the pot. I suggested they might want to double pot to help control water evaporation.
When I wrote about the green vegetable failures I mentioned that hydroponic systems were so expensive that they seemed impractical for growing vegetables in desert-like conditions. But for potatoes and other root vegetables, like carrots, there are some very affordable systems, among them a grow bag I found on Amazon. Some have little doors near the bottom to allow you to harvest the potatoes while leaving the plant undisturbed. That seems to confirm my niece’s experience of the perpetually producing potato plant.
So here’s to potato salad year ’round from your shady patio garden!
BLUE UPDATE
In the previous post about the blue bottle garden I asked readers what they thought about the garden. The responses were not positive which was my initial reaction, too. But different people have differing ideas of beauty. I will post some more attractive lawn replacement gardens soon.
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