Pomme de terre a la dusty bin! (Potatoes)

Member Name: skybabes

Product:	Potatoes
Date:	18/09/01 (2012 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: space saving, lucious fresh spuds, not so prone to garden pests

Disadvantages: I am only little I fell in my bin !

Have you ever munched down on a fresh, home grown potato?
There is a good reason why potatoes are one of the most popular vegetables in the home garden. They're easy to grow, and they taste better!

The potato plant is the world's most widely grown vegetable and there are more than 5,000 varieties of potatoes grown worldwide.
The first potatoes are believed to have come from Peru 6,000 years ago



HOW IT ALL STARTED
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As some of you who will of read my earlier opinions on " Bernard the tomato" and " herbal slugs and snails” will know I am fast becoming the Barbara Good of Wales and dooyoo.

So to spuds ,the dear old staple of many a diet. We dug a garden patch this year, but didn’t have enough room for the spuds we like. Never mind my dear dooyooer’s I had a cunning plan. A very cunning plan.

Now Bernard the tomato plant was quite happy to be in his little pot along with all his siblings...why couldn’t I do the same for my spuds???? No reason at all not to except potatoes like a lot of earth, I need to find a deep deep pot.

I came up with the perfect solution. I bought 2 dustbins [black plastic ones] for £4 each from a local farmers co-op down the road[well it is Wales after all]. Deep and pot shaped!!

Trouble was they were black, and they looked odd on the patio. I suppose I could of called in Carol Smilie and her team, but I didn’t fancy Lawrence Llewelyn doing his changing rooms on my bins. I took matters into my own hands.

With the help of the children and a few emulsion pot samples from B&Q at 29p each we painted little flowers, butterflies, bees and other wonderful and quite wacky insects on the front of them. They still stood out, but were now quite eye-catching. The kids thought that they had done a wonderful job and it kept them interested and involved in the garden.


DUSTBIN POTATO
ES...THE METHOD
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Potatoes are fat-free, cholesterol-free, saturated fat-free, and sodium-free foods. Potatoes are high in Vitamin C and potassium and are a good source of Vitamin B6 and dietary fibre.

Did you know that potatoes are only 20% solids and 80% water?

Potatoes require full sun to grow and because they are aggressively rooting plants, they will produce the best crop when planted in a light, loose, soil .They are very adaptable and will usually produce a respectable crop, even when the soil conditions are less than perfect. I just used soil from the garden and mixed it with a little bit of compost.

Be sure to punch some drainage holes in the bottom of your dustbin [a barrel, a wooden box, or any large container at least 18 inches deep with good drainage will also work].

Planting:
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I planted my potatoes at the beginning of April this year and I harvested them in June when the potato prices in the shops can be quite high.

Put a layer of soil about 6 inches deep into the bottom. Place the potato tubers inside[2 per bin], then cover with three inches of soil. When leaves appear and plants are 6 to 8 inches high, add another layer of soil and continue earthing them up until they reach the top.

The object of earthing them up is to increase the depth of the soil over the roots so as to encourage them to spread and form tubers. It also lessens the risk of the tubers being exposed to light which will make them green and inedible.

To harvest, simply turn the dustbin onto its side and shake out the crop!

I used “Pentland express”, a variety of new potatoes gives a great yield for this. I got 56 good sized potatoes from my dustbins combined and they tasted great. I got the potato tubers from my local nursery and instead of buying a whole bag of seed potatoes I just bought 4 for 20p, I thought that this was good value .




SOME ALTERNATIVE USES FOR YOUR POTATOES
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Incas had many uses for potatoes other than dinner:
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*Raw slices placed on broken bones to promote healing.
*Carried to prevent rheumatism
*Eaten with other foods to prevent indigestion.


Other uses past down through the ages:
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*If you have a toothache, you should carry around a peeled potato.
*Treat facial blemishes by washing you face daily with cool potato juice.
*Treat frostbite or sunburn by applying raw grated potato or potato juice to the affected area.
*Ease a sore throat by putting a slice of baked potato in a stocking and tying it around your throat.
*Ease aches and pains by rubbing the affected area with the water potatoes have been boiled in.

**Actually if you do rub a raw potato on a slight burn or scald or on sunburn it is very very effective.[well I had to try one of the above didn’t I !]


SILLY SPUD FACTS
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Marie Antoinette wife of Louis XV was known to wear potato blossoms as a hair decoration.

In October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies.

During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.

So next year if you haven’t got enough room in your garden for your potatoes.....you now have an alternative.



I hope you enjoyed reading this, and find it useful.

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