Potatoes and onions and seeds, oh my!

[MammaG]

I'm not a very good gardener (yet). I have some questions that will probably seem ridiculous...go gently with me!

1) I have a small city space for gardening. I want to do the potatoes-in-tires project with my kids. Can I just cut up a potato from the store to plant? One that's already sprouting? Or do I need to go buy seed potatoes? How many for the tire project?

2) I also have some sprouting onions and shallots in my larder (OK...also not so good at the kitchen economy obviously!). Can I plant those in the ground and expect to get onions and shallots at some point? When can they be planted?

3) Seeds. When? I keep googling and there seems to be no one answer. I live just north of Boston. I want to sow some veggie seeds and some flower seeds. I think I'm too late to start indoors? Or can we start this weekend and transplant maybe at the end of April outdoors?

4) Additional question: I have a nace sunny spot beside the driveway where I plan to make three 5'sq. raised beds for veggies. In that amount of space can I get enough produce to make it worthwhile? I also have a paved space that I plan to either tear up or container-garder an herb garden. WHen can herb seeds go in?

Thanks! Mucho appreciated!

ETA: just looked it up and it seems I'm in Zone 6, just FYI.

[Erinz]

I can't address all of them because I'm not in your zone but:

1) Tires? Are you sure? Have you seen the potatoes in bags? These look easy and fun and you could actually move them around if you wanted or needed to:
http://www.sustainableeats.com/2010/...n-coffee-bags/

I just can't personally imagine growing in a stinky old tire? All those chemicals? eww.

2) you can try planting ones that have sprouted but I don't think you'll get much? The ones that I miss and leave in the ground sprout again and aren't productive.

And you will be amazed at what you can produce in a small area! Try all different stuff and have fun

[limette]

We did potatoes in tires. They hardly produced and the tires were infested with ants.

How big are your onions? If they are regular sized there's not much point in planting them, they won't likely get much bigger.

[Katie T]

I'm not good at the whole gardening thing yet either, but I do know that if you go to a nursery or similar they are a pluthera of information for your area.

I agree to have fun and just go for it, even if you only get a few to grow it is still exciting! I learned the hard way you have to keep rabbits out of your garden.

Better luck to us this year.

[Minxie]

Hi, I'm on the cape and also zone 6. Our last frost is around mid-May so you still have about six weeks, plenty of time to start seedlings indoors if you get going now. Better to be a bit late transplanting them rather than too early 'cause the frost will kill them.

[MammaG]

OK, scrapping the tire idea. It looked like a fun kid-project but I don't want the chemicals in our food...didn't think of that (or if I did, I guess I hoped maybe the gross stuff hed leached out by the time we got them). Also sounds like it doesn't work too well.

We're starting seeds today in egg cartons. So I guess I can wait until some time in May to set them out in the yard. Do I need to wait that long to direct-sow? I was going to do some allysum and cosmos seeds this year as a quick-growing easy cover for parts of our city garden that until we got to it was kind of a weedy wasteland...lots of debris in the soil, ugly as could be! Landlord is funding some perennials and some bushes but I want to cover as many of the ugly parts as I can!

Rabbits. In the city? I was planning a wire fence around the veggies to keep out the neighbourhood kids and dogs all of whom seem to have gotten used to using this yard as a toilet/cut-through (house was abandoned for years before our landlord rescued it and made an AWESOME apartment!). I'm sort of hoping that as people see that we are using our yard they will keep their dogs in check. Kids have been redirected for the most part. Will this type of wire fence be sufficient to keep out any urban-chic bunnies?

[Minxie]

Is that your garden? It's lovely! I don't know about the rabbits but your garden is neat. :-)

[MammaG]

Oh Lord, no! That's what I'm aiming to make around our tiny city space between our driveway and the next lot! I like the look of the fence and it seems easy and not that expensive to do. Found that pic online. Just wondering if it will keep out most of the critters.

[kennedy444]

I'm planning on doing the potatoes in a trash bag this year. These directions say to get a seed potato since they are more disease resistant.

I did my first garden last year. A small raised bed - snap peas, beans, lettuce and tomatoes - a few plants and a good crop. For this year I've planted lettuce and broccoli so far. Plan to do dwarf carrots, beans, snap peas (bush style), tomatoes and one more veggie if there is room.

[Erinz]

That fencing looks pretty cool to me!

Trash bag food growing sounds totally wild to me --- soft plastics are the most leaching and dangerous.

[kennedy444]

Originally Posted by Erinz

--- soft plastics are the most leaching and dangerous.

Oh, good point.
Didn't even think of this.....ugh....and it sounded like such a great idea.

[~Boudicca~]

Originally Posted by Erinz

I can't address all of them because I'm not in your zone but:

1) Tires? Are you sure? Have you seen the potatoes in bags? These look easy and fun and you could actually move them around if you wanted or needed to:
http://www.sustainableeats.com/2010/...n-coffee-bags/

I just can't personally imagine growing in a stinky old tire? All those chemicals? eww.

2) you can try planting ones that have sprouted but I don't think you'll get much? The ones that I miss and leave in the ground sprout again and aren't productive.

And you will be amazed at what you can produce in a small area! Try all different stuff and have fun

Oh I am so trying this!!!!

[kennedy444]

Originally Posted by Erinz

I These look easy and fun and you could actually move them around if you wanted or needed to:
http://www.sustainableeats.com/2010/...n-coffee-bags/

LOVE the idea of burlap bags. THANK YOU!
Will search for a source in my area (Cape Cod). Maybe the local feed store or a cranberry grower?

[MammaG]

OK, bags! Sounds great. I actually have some burlap potato sacks leftover from a birthday a few years ago...we had sack races. I think we got them from a market...potatoes were delivered in bulk I guess, so you might try that, Kim.

[TanyaS]

Originally Posted by MammaG

OK, scrapping the tire idea. It looked like a fun kid-project but I don't want the chemicals in our food...didn't think of that (or if I did, I guess I hoped maybe the gross stuff hed leached out by the time we got them). Also sounds like it doesn't work too well.

You could still do some tire flower beds for the kids to grow stuff you don't eat.

[cschick]

Hmm. I've been glancing through all these various ways to grow potatoes--has anyone ever done potatoes in large plastic planters? I have these old, gigantic round plastic planters from when I was mainly doing container gardening stacked up in the garage. I used to do romas in them, and they fit a pretty big tomato cage.

I've been wanting to try potatoes, but not really thinking about it this year because they couldn't go in my primary bed (tomato blight last year), and wouldn't work well in my secondary. Is there any reason I couldn't do potatoes in the plastic planters? They are almost as tall as the bags would get fully filled with dirt at the end of the season.

[MammaG]

Our local coffee-shop owner to the rescue! He gets two (gorgeous!) burlap sacks a week and he's saving them for us! Also getting 5-gal buckets from him for tomatoes, peppers and squash.

I read somewhere online that I can grow things like pumpkins and spreading squash in a bucket and let them spill out onto hard-top (we have a lot of paving that we probably won't be able to get rid of this year). Any thoughts?

[cschick]

Originally Posted by MammaG

I read somewhere online that I can grow things like pumpkins and spreading squash in a bucket and let them spill out onto hard-top (we have a lot of paving that we probably won't be able to get rid of this year). Any thoughts?

I just did some research, because I'd love to put some of my squash-types in pots and move them away from the garden into other areas of the yard.

Apparently, it's all really dependent on the root space they need and the amount of water they consume. It's not recommended for larger jack'o'lantern pumpkins unless you can set up some sort of continuous watering system because they'll suck the pot dry in pretty short order. Smaller pumpkins and smaller squash need a larger container (5-10 gallons) and a good supply of water.