Planting Potatoes

It's been so cold here in Mississippi.  Too cold to be outside working in the garden.

But I had some seed potatoes and onions I needed to plant.  It's already a little late to be planting potatoes, but better late than never . . .

I haven't ever planted potatoes before so this was a new experience for me.   I bought 5 pounds of seed potatoes.

The seed potatoes have eyes that have started to sprout. 

You cut around the sprouted part of the potatoes.  The sprouted part is what you plant.

You can cut more than one sprouted eye to plant from each potato.

When I got through cutting the potatoes, I had a pile of potatoes to plant.

Before planting the potatoes, I tilled the garden spot again.  Dave had tilled the area last Wednesday, but the dirt was so wet and gummy we decided to wait a couple of days to plant the potatoes so that the dirt could dry out a little. 

Today, I spent about an hour tilling the garden spot.  I tilled it using the reverse rotating blades on the tiller to break the ground up really well.  Once I was satisfied that the dirt was broken up well, I then tilled the garden using the forward rotating blades for cultivating. 

I used a hoe to make rows for the potatoes leaving a space between the rows wide enough for my tiller.  Shane had a little hoe, and he helped me make the rows.  :)

My daddy always plants his potatoes the same day he cuts them.  I cut my potatoes on Wednesday, but didn't plant them until today -- Sunday.  I hope these potatoes grow!

The Ferrell boys showed up to help me plant the potatoes.  :)

I let them plant the potatoes whereever they wanted to as long as they planted them in the rows. 

Step one:  You dig a hole about 4 inches down.

Step two:  You place the potato cutting into the hole with the eye/sprout facing up and the cut part on the dirt.

Step three:  Cover the potato cutting up.

Step four:  Repeat steps 1 through 3 until all potato cuttings are planted.

Potatoes planted.  :)    Daddy says I need to sprinkle Triple 13 fertilizer on the rows tomorrow.  How fun!  And onions tomorrow!

The boys love working in the garden.  So do I. 

It was so much fun doing it together . . . just  

                          the Ferrell boys and me!

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