Experimental Gardening: Growing Potatoes
Growing Potatoes in the Putnam Urban Farm in Denver, CO
During the pandemic our family discovered various gardening shows on Amazon Prime including Gardener’s World with Monty Don which takes place in England. Another show Andy discovered is called Grow Cook Eat which takes place in Ireland. I have to say the UK sure does know a thing or two about gardening! Grow Cook Eat was interesting because they showed how to grow various veggies both in a traditional garden setting as well as in container pots.
In one episode they focused on potatoes and showed how to plant, harvest, and then cook these hardy vegetables. Inspired by this episode, Andy and I decided to make a go at it and planted our own potato patch in a nifty little cloth/felt garden bag he purchased on Amazon. The first attempt didn’t go so well, so we watched the episode again, caught another one on Monty Don that also focused on planting potatoes and gave it another go! This time we made sure our seed potatoes had little sprouts before we planted them. Once we knew they were ready, we filled our container with four to six inches of soil, put the spuds in and covered them with four more inches of soil. Then when they started to sprout greenery, we would continue hilling (adding soil) as the plants grew, each time covering the green till it was not quite completely covered. We continued to do this until there was no more room to add more dirt. All this took place in the green house I designed, and Andy made in the corner of our garage earlier in the fall. In the spring, we moved them to the Putnam Farm where they continued to grow all summer in their little green garden bag.
The funny thing is we are not quite sure when we are supposed to harvest them. So, we’ve decided that come either the end of September of beginning of October (before the first frost) we are going to pull up the greenery and see if we have a potato harvest!
So, despite the pandemic or perhaps in part thanks to it I discovered the joy of experimental gardening! Basically, I took my approach to creating art and applied it to the garden. Yes, I periodically have failures, but they are often followed by successes and if not … then I just give it another go and apply what I learned from the first attempt. This approach makes gardening in the urban garden more interesting and more enjoyable and is preparing me for my future adventures on the Putnam Farm in Palisade!
