We have not had good luck in the past growing potatoes. With our dense, clay like soil we ended up with very small funny shaped potatoes. The past few years we haven’t even tried, but this year we are planning to have LOTS of home grown potatoes to store away for the winter. A potato bin filled with a top soil, sand, and compost mix seems like the best way to go.
If you read about our “Red Neck Art Project” you know that Digger replaced the deck on his trailer last month. He used the old boards off the deck to made a HUGE potato bin!
Here is the finished product. It’s 4′ wide, 12′ long, and 2′ high and I bet you’re wondering what the pole across the middle is for.
Pretty handy, right? Digger moved it into the garden and the girls and I planted potato starts! It’s the first thing we’ve planted this year and it felt good to be in the dirt. We’ll layer several inches of mix every few weeks as they grow which (hopefully) will fill this thing to the top by the end of the season with large, correctly shaped spuds. In the fall Digger will bring the excavator back and lift the bin off so we can easily harvest them!
So that’s it: Our super cheap, handy dandy, recycled, potato bin, with an excavator handle!
Wow, very interesting. Let us know how the harvest comes out.
Thanks for sharing at Wildcrafting Wednesday.
Thanks for sharing at Wildcrafting Wednesday.
Love, love the handle! Thanks for sharing on the HomeAcre Hop. Come back and join us this week: http://everythinghomewithcarol.com/self-sufficient-homeacre-hop-and-green-circle-grove-giveaway
What a fantastic idea. Good luck with the huge potatoes I am sure will be growing. B
Thanks Buttons, I hope so!!
I’m curious, the structure is pretty deep and long, so I imagine buying soil to fill would be pretty pricey. Did you take soil from elsewhere, or are you using just straw, or did you buy soil?
Buying soil would be very expensive. We are using a mixture of top soil (from our field) and compost (that is mostly straw and chicken manure) and some sand. The sand was the only thing we bought and it was very cheap. This is all an experiment for us so I’m excited to see how it turns out! Thanks for stopping by Megan!
I love this! We love to repurpose stuff around here. We recently used some shipping crates from a transmission/radiator shop to enlarge our chicken coop. We’re growing our potatoes similar to this. My husband put chicken wire around the bed to make a cage and we’re filling it with leaves as the potatoes grow. (I’ve seen people use straw but the leaves are free) We live in the south and they are starting to flower so hopefully we’ll be harvesting soon.
Leaves are a great idea! I love it when we can use something we no longer need to make something useful!! Hope you end up with a plentiful potato harvest! Thanks for visiting Angi!
Great idea, Grace! Thanks for sharing this on The HomeAcre Hop 🙂 We featured it yesterday!
Thanks Lisa!!
Great way to recycle, reduce, reuse! I want to plant potatoes next year.
Thanks for sharing at The Creative HomeAcre Hop! Hope to see you again this week!
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