First came the potato "cages". I have seen and read about these simple cages for some time, and coincidentally Josh Byrne featured the method on Gardening Australia on Saturday night, so while I am waiting for DH to deal with these pallets,
so that I can build more permanent "towers", I found some wire mesh and made two cages:
They are much taller than Josh recommends but I couldn't be bothered chopping up the mesh (and it makes it less useful for future projects), so I just left them as is. I was worried that the holes in the mesh were way too big and the straw would fall through but they seem to be holding up OK?
I pretty much followed the rest of Josh's instructions, although I substituted chook poo for sheep manure (I can't get sheep manure here) and certified organic sugar cane mulch for pea straw. I also planted five spuds in each cage, not four, as I planted Kipflers and they are smaller than the spuds he planted. Will be interesting to see how they go! Should be easy to harvest anyway :-)
Next on the list was the yacon rhizomes I have been storing since I harvested my crop, and the two types of Arrowroot (Queensland and West Indian, the latter is the type the commercial flour is made from whilst the former are a good starchy vegetable substitute) I bought from Green Harvest this year. I haven't cleared the front garden bed yet to make way for them, so I started them up in foam broccoli boxes with some certified organic potting mix.
Into another foam box I planted out ginger rhizomes, also saved from this last harvest. I have also ordered some galangal from my local organic grocer which should arrive in today's delivery; it will also go into a foam box (unless I run out of potting mix!). I also noticed some new (to me) varieties of sweet potatoes in the grocery list, so I've ordered an all white one, and a white-skinned, purple-fleshed one! Should be interesting for the kids anyway. I hope they grow as well as the orange ones I planted out last year :-)
9 comments:
Ohhh that is how I am going to grow my spuds when they arrive! I organised a spud co - op on EB and have 30kg's of seed pototoes coming!
What a great idea! I was thinking I should have done something like that myself with some local girls (but using EB didn't occur to me!), because I've still got half a bag of kipflers left and nowhere to plant them (yet?). Well done L :-)
LOL, let's hope that they all pay up and collect! DH was a bit grumpy about me buying $216 worth of spuds!
You have been busy!! BTW I'm holding you personally responsible for the mini greenhouse I bought yesterday :)
Ahhh I missed that episode of GA, what a great idea!
Good luck!
Oh er L, I do hope everyone pays up, or you're gonna have a bumper crop of spuds to deal with!! Maybe you could just plant them in your mulch pile out the front ;-)
LOL Kez, you should get some good use out of greenhouse though, so I don't feel too bad for "making" you buy it ;-)
Hi Jayne, thanks. You can download GA episodes from the website if you miss them, which is cool. Or you can just check the fact sheets :-)
Cheers, Julie
I just stuck mine in a rubbish bin and drilled a whole heap of holes in the bottom; filled it with worm castings/straw and stuck the potatoes in.
I ended up putting 4 in each bin; they are starting to sprout, so I'm somehow doing something right!!
We'll see what my yeild is.
well well hello looking up potato cages and I see some old friends. must explore this site more.
from eb's trionasmum
Crone waves to Molly!!!!
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