Today, we finally had a nice sunny day with no rain, so we got the potatoes planted. I ordered seed potatoes of the following varieties: Red Gold, Yukon Gold, Red Norland, and Yellow Finn. My plan is to harvest as we go along and have lots of new potatoes, and if we get a large harvest, I'll leave some in the ground all the way through the season to store for the winter. I have only grown potatoes once before, and it didn't go well, so I am not exactly sure how many I will get.
I cut up the seed potatoes two nights ago, making sure each piece had at least one eye. I ended up with more than I needed, so next time, I will leave more eyes on each piece and have fewer pieces. I left the potatoes out for the two nights because I read that it can prevent rot if you let the cuts callous over before planting. More sophisticated gardeners sprinkle sulfur on the potatoes to prevent rot, but I can't be bothered with that. They can rot if they please.
I planted the potatoes in the containers that you can see here. Yes, my neighbors will think I am running a garbage can farm, rather than a potato farm. The bag that you see is a left over bag of peat moss. Livy emptied out half of the peat, and we planted potatoes there too. If you also want to plant in your random containers, make sure you cut a whole or two in the bottom for drainage.
Below you can see that I put only about 5 or 6 inches of soil in the containers. As the potato plants grow upward, I will add more dirt to encourage the plants to make more lateral roots and more potatoes. I read that I should add more dirt whenever the plant reaches 4-6 inches high. I saw a great way to make this kind of bed, starting with one tire and adding more tires and more dirt as the plant grows. If I see any abandoned tires, I will be grabbing them for next year.
The next picture is of the tiny lettuce seedling that have popped up in one of my containers. The first seeds of the spring are always a delight. 
Below are pictures of our science experiments we are doing about plants. The first one is celery in colored water, illustrating how stems pull water up from the roots to the leaves. The second is one of my seed potatoes half in water so that we can see what is happening to our potatoes under the soil. 
Spring really is here. I can tell because suddenly the yard needs mowing (but I won't for a while because it is full of sweet smelling purple blossomed weeds), daffodils are out in force, and my lilac bush has tiny leaves on it. My next tasks are to cut back the old dead growth on my fountain grass
and to plant some new flowers and summer blooming bulbs.
and to plant some new flowers and summer blooming bulbs.
