Grow your own potatoes

After reading & contributing to a thread on the Public Health Bill over at Kiwiblog I thought I'd let you in on the secret of growing your own potatoes - almosty anywhere, you don't need a garden. Seeing as someone there said the country's seed potato supply went up in smoke the other day.

Kiwiblog » Blog Archive » The Public Health Bill

Get a bucket, any old bucket.

Drill 3 or 4 holes in the bottom.

Put a couple of inches of compost into the bucket.

Followed by 3 or 4 potatoes. They don't have to be seed potatoes - I do this regularly with jersey bennys bought from the supermarket.

Cover with compost, but not to the top of the bucket - just enough to cover the potatoes.

Sit in the sun somewhere & water every couple of days.

The potatoes will send up shoots & leaves. Every few days, add more compost around the shoots, until the bucket is full, by then it will be quite a lush looking plant.

Keep watering every few days.

When the leaves start to go brown, empty the bucket & you will find it full of fresh potatoes.

Plant one of these buckets every three weeks or so & you'll have home grown spuds all year round.