Potato Harvest

One of the things we tried in our garden this year was growing potatoes in an old metal trash can. The theory behind this method is that as the potato stems sprout, you can add more dirt and compost to the trash can, and trick the potatoes into thinking they're still trying to reach the surface. As they continue to grow up, they produce more tubers (the part of the plant we eat) along the way. Once the stems sprout and then eventually die, you know it's time to harvest your potatoes. 

This week, we decided to see what we had produced. We laid out a tarp and dumped the dirt and potatoes plants onto it. We then sifted through the dirt in search of a bountiful harvest.

Unfortunately, the bounty was lacking. There were a few good size spuds, but most were bite-sized at best. We hadn't been terribly consistent about adding dirt to the trash can, which might have impacted our results. But the lousy summer weather certainly could have been a factor.

We'll definitely give it another go next year!

Compost Bin

As part of expanding our gardening efforts, I decided to build an additional composting bin that would allow us to store more composting materials and be more intentional about layering "brown" materials (high amounts of carbon) and "green" materials (high amounts of nitrogen). The suggested ratio between the two is 30:1, which is good because our chickens eat most of our "green" materials anyway.

Thankfully, this project didn't take nearly as long as the chicken coop (and only required one Home Depot trip), but it was still fun to break out the ol' power saw.  

The front of the bin is made of cedar slats to make it easier to turn and remove the compost.

"Cooking" the compost.