I found the coolest book at the library: Grow Great Grub: organic food from small spaces by Gayla Trail. It's a good enough book that I plan to buy a copy so I can make notes in the margins. She said I could grow potatoes in a trash can, as long as it was more than 18” tall. A clean garbage can.
So, I unloaded a blue plastic behemoth that’s been sitting in this garage for six years and in the one at my previous house for at least ten years. It held odd tools and long scraps of wood, all of which I stashed here and there around the garage, contributing to the overall happy clutter. Drilled some holes in the bottom of the can and filled it with 5” of potting soil.
There were these two already-sprouting potatoes on hand, one of which I found in the back of my refrigerator drawer. [Don’t raise your eyebrows at me. I have a botanically-interesting ‘fridge. So there.]
I cut each potato in several pieces, each with an active eye, and let them dry for a couple of days. Then I plopped them in the can, covered them with another 2 or 3 inches of soil and waited for them to grow up through that layer. I keep piling more dirt on them as they extend upward. Eventually the can will be full, the shoots will leaf out, and finally will flower. That will make my bees happy!
Once the leaves yellow and die back, I’ll be able to harvest pounds and pounds of potatoes without having had to do any weeding to speak of. That will make me happy!
The bees win / I win.
Perfect.
BEEattitude for Day # 157:
Blessed are people who write helpful books, for they shall be loved by their readers, and we bees shall praise them for the way we benefit.
One thing Fran is grateful for right now:
My thrifty cell phone from Consumer Cellular
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