country n news-1 potato 2 potato 3...

COUNTRY N NEWS-1 POTATO 2 POTATO 3..

if you google keyhole garden then click on images
you will see the keyhole garden i made from an old
watering trough that started to leak
i filled it with cardboard newspapers twigs and
good hill country garden soil
keeping it maintained with regular additions of good ole
country n compost


last spring i planted my peppers and cilantro in this bed
which produced from may to sometime in december
i then removed the plants
added 4 inches of compost with the addition of
ladybug 8-2-4 organic fertilizer and ladybug cottonseed meal
also adding some green sand to put back some minerals and
iron into the soil
then i watered it all in well with liquid humate and molasses
covered it all with leaves
then let it sit for about 2 months

now i went to the nursery and got a bag of 20 red losota potatoes
i try to pick the smallest ones
since i dont cut them and apply sulfa
seems like too much work
i just throw the potato in the hole cover it and im done

in this keyhole garden i dug a curved trench 8 inches deep
about a foot from the edge
then i simply dropped a potato in the hole every 12 inches
added some 8-2-4 between each potato
then covered up the trench with about 2-3 inches of soil

as the plants grow up out of the hole
i will pull more soil over them until eventually i get a mound
this provides a good 8-12 inches of soil for the new taters to grow

then
a foot above this trench i dug another trench the same size
doing the same thing as in the first trench

so i have two trenches with a total of 20 potatoes planted
in this keyhole garden
it should yield about 2-3 5 gallon buckets of
country n organic potatoes

then i covered up all the bed with a layer of leaves as a mulch
during the cold weather

then i added a thick row cover to keep this bed warm
during the cold days of february

i see baked potatoes mashed potatoes grilled sliced potatoes
grilled veggies with potatoes in my dreams

this bed will produce potatoes that will last us until about
november of this year
harvest usually occurs in may

then finally

this is a picture of where i store all the bags of leaves that
you have given me over the last 2 years
they were  used something like 150 bags to refill
my chicken coop and its runs
the space between my beds in my garden
my compost area in my chicken pen
as mulch to winter over my beds
as well as mulch for my winter veggies

you can see that my holding area is now empty
i need leaves
so if you live close to me and have bags of leaves
i want them
as long as no pesticides or weedkiller or poisons are
used on your landscape

thanks

the organicgreen doctor