Potatoes in bags update

The yukon and purple potatoes growing in compost bags are doing really well. In fact, they are growing so fast I've run out of soil to top them off. I'll have to get one extra bag of compost - this works out well for me because some of my other pots needs more soil.

From the left: garlic, purple potatoes, and yukon gold potatoes

I'm not sure if I should be thinning out the foliage so there will be space for the potatoes to grow. I started with 2 yukon gold potatoes so there is lots stems/leaves. I think I may just leave it as is and keep adding soil.

Using every inch of space on my property

I've finished potting up all my plants. Last year I had some baby tomatoes destroyed by birds so I started extra plants as back up. This year, the birds are leaving my tomato seedlings alone (so far) so it looks like I will have to trash my backup plants. This is difficult for me to get rid of the seedlings that I babied...so I'm trying to think if I can create more space for them. Maybe I can get a couple of small containers....

My extra vegetable seedlings...hope to find space for them

Containers soil recycling and potatoes planted

I had a very busy weekend of prepping all the containers for the season. I am very lucky because my parents are visiting and I had my mom to help me. I usually can only do 2 -3 pots a day because I just hate this part of gardening. I had pulled out all the vegetables that were left in the pot over the winter but I hadn't gone through to get rid of roots and break up the soil. There is nowhere to "throw" old soil out and my balcony is at full capacity. So I am amending with just a scoopful of cow manure, peat moss, vegetable fertilizer, bone meal, garden lime and azomite. I'm comfortable with almost everything except the garden lime. My mother was asking if I had "yodosekkai" - which of course I didn't know what it was but googled it and it came up as lime. I did have garden lime that I bought thinking I may grow some blueberries but had not used it.  I've been reading a little and it seems that gardeners in US (and UK) don't really use it unless their soil is very acidic. Now I'm thinking my soil may be too basic, and I am thinking of getting a pH meter to check. I did use a little peat moss so I'm hoping it equals out. But the cleaned pots look fantastic and I really appreciate my mom helping me. I definitely would not have finished without her.

Containers organized - soil recycled

My seed potatoes have really grown some big sprouts. Again I was lucky that my mother was around - she urged me that they were ready to be put into soil.

Two yukons and one purple potato

We (or I should say she) prepped two bags - tied off the ends so that it'll stay upright.

Added some soil...

then the potatoes...

some more soil and a grid to keep the rats/birds/squirrels away and now we wait to see what happens.

We also cleaned up my little corridor next to the house. My neighbor's family was visiting from out of town, and asked me the other day if I saw rats around here. I said, of course, and he said that he caught one in the corridor the some days back. I'm grateful he is combating the rats and not sure if he set up traps, but it is kind of a lost cause. This is Baltimore city...there are rats everywhere and there is no possible way to catch them all.

Cleaned up space - using every inch of my property to grow food

I got me some taters!

Stopped by the grocery store on my way back from work. I naturally gravitated towards the organic potato isle...and couldn't help but notice the yukon gold already with some shoots. The purple potatoes also caught my eyes (thank you Linda for the tip!). I also grabbed a handful of creamer potatoes...which I later found out was just young potatoes (most likely yukon gold).

Yukon gold, purple potato, and the little creamer potato

Yukon gold shoots

Purple potato - look how pretty!

Looks just as pretty cooked...but tastes just like a regular potato

I'm going to leave the potatoes out and see if I can get more shoots. The purple potatoes taste just like a regular potato but it just looks so cool.