Planting Potatoes: The 2019 Growing Season Begins

It begins mid-February. Ever behind in my pursuit to keep up with my own gardening schedule, we watch the weather and catch up when we can, where we can. Summer comes on fast and hard and so these late winter days and some sheets of plastic become the tools we use in at attempt at a spring garden.

The first order of business this year? Planting potatoes.

But first, we had to clear the Austria Winter Pea Greens. We ate a ton, I attempted to juice some, we stored some, and let the goats and Mabel have at it right in the field. After that, we began cutting them to supplement animal feed.

We had purchased 20 lb of seed potatoes at a local feed and seed store. I cut them all up – 2 eyes to a seed – and we began digging our 40-foot rows. Six rows in, two things were quite evident:

1. We were going to need more potato seed.

2. Mama is out of gardening shape. Thankfully, these boys aren’t and they seemed genuinely happy to spend a day in the garden rather than the school room. Also, the potential for fried homegrown potatoes is some kind of motivation for these always hungry, growing boys.

So we finished what we could on Saturday and stopped at Tractor Supply on Monday. The seed was much more expensive and in much worse shape, but those are the breaks when you don’t get it right the first time. So ten more pounds of seed and off we went.


By Monday we finished planting over 350 of those potatoes and I made a mental note (which I am writing here because we all know how those “mental notes” go) of the fact that 30 pounds of seed potatoes were just about right for our lot.

And so it begins: Another gardening season, another year of trial and error… and probably even more error. Another spring of trying to hurry up and beat summer; another summer of let’s see how long the water holds out.

Every year holds something completely different, in this gardening zone that still seems so foreign to me. But there is something about this process; dirt under my fingernails, a daily tending to something that miraculously begins with a tiny seed. It’s just so much fun.

Barefoot in the garden with a baby on my hip – you’ll either find me there or in the kitchen or at the school table. How such a privilege as that became shameful in our culture, I will never understand.

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7 Comments

  1. I have been endeavoring to keep ahead of my garden schedule too. My main problem, though, is not having sufficent grow lights to keep the seedlings I have started from going leggy. I need to pick up another one from the hardware store, before my tomatoes over grow.

    1. Katie, I have had trouble with leggy starts as well. I think we decided this year we may just buy the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant starts since I can’t seem to get them right. A bit of compromise but maybe next year we’ll get that green house up?

      1. Buying the plants already started, does take a lot of stress out of the gardening process. And it is something we have done some years. But this year, I am trying alot of heirloom varieties that I am not sure if I could find at a local greenhouse. My eggplant and peppers are looking good. But I am slightly concerned about the tomatoes. Their main problem is they are trying to share a light with the peppers and that is not going to work long term ( I am planning a trip to the hardware store this weekend to remedy it). We did have a 6ish’×4ish’ seed starting green house until January, when it was crushed by a tree we were trying to fell (oopsie!). We were already planing to take it down and relocate it, as the roof had blown off, so I guess the tree just helped us with the demo.
        But if you can get one up on your place, I would reccommend it. They can come in handy.

  2. This post is the BEST. Love everything about it. Can I ask the size of your potato yard so I know how far 30lbs got you? …estimating for my own space?! Thanks ❤️

    1. Hi Kimberly,
      The field was approximately 27-30 feet wide by 40 feet long. I cut the potatoes as small as I could, leaving two eyes per piece, and I have read that larger potatoes = better yield, though I don’t know if that’s true or not. How big is your potato plot?

  3. Nothing shameful press on. Often it is those whose view of righteousness is skewed.

    I will be planting my first garden (formally my husbands domain) in years. In fact I am now going it on my own as he passed in late November. Never a dull moment!

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