Monday, June 10, 2013

Potato Pots

Today I transplanted a few potatoes into my spare pots.
I had found them in a bag when I cleaned out the pantry; they were a little dry and had put out short roots, so I just plunked them here and there as an experiment. It turns out it was a very successful experiment, and they shot up so many leaves that they were crowding out the other things nearby.
I wanted to give those other things a chance; for example, one of our half-casks are going to be full of cut flowers (I hope). At the same time, I wanted a few more plants to shape the pathway from our driveway to the backyard. Earlier this week, we had a couple stopping by casually to look at our raingarden and while the garden looks nice, to get there I had to take them past a rather disorganized, dare I say "seedy", collection of not much. I reorganized things to shape the overly-wide walkway into a path lined by plants in pots, except that I had more pots than plants.
So today I put those extra potato plants into the pots. The results are as shown. The leafy plants have a pleasant look and line the path nicely. I suppose they'll die back in the fall, and I'll do something different then ... maybe plant rainbow chard. I expect I'll get some potatoes out of the deal as well - not a huge amount, but enough for a meal per pot. And in the meantime, I got some satisfactory plants AND did not waste the  old spuds - surely a win for all involved!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh they're so pretty! I think herbs and vegetables make gorgeous plants for the garden ... and the benefits you've described are fabulous! This year, for the first time, I've lined the entry to our apartment with containers of potatoes and herbs. I'm just thrilled with how it looks and I'll be harvesting herbs throughout the summer and hopefully potatoes in the fall. I wanted to start some sweet potatoes but never got around to it. Perhaps it's not too late. The trouble is ... I like them so ... we eat them and don't have any left for seed. It's a happy problem!