It's that time of year when the to-do list is growing as quickly and as unruly as the grass (and weeds) in the un-mowed and un-grazed corners of the farm. One big project we checked off the list, though, was planting roughly 3600 potato seed pieces, our largest planting to date.
For the past three seasons, we have been experimenting with an unconventional way of growing potatoes. Instead of planting in furrows, we place the seed pieces directly on the soil surface, then cover them with a thick mulch of leaves. The tubers form in the mulch, not the soil, so harvesting is as straightforward as pulling up the plants by hand and then feeling through the leaves for any potatoes we missed. This technique keeps the potatoes clean and saves us a lot of time and effort with digging forks or a potato plow. It also means the soil stays fairly undisturbed (one of our goals is to disturb the soil as little as possible).
And the leaves keep on giving. After the potatoes are out, we plant another crop through the mulch. Once that crop is harvested, the leaves continue to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and feed soil microbes through the winter until, by springtime, they have broken down into a thin, compost-y layer on the bed tops, leaving them ready for direct seeding.
For now, though, we wait and watch for the green tops of potato plants to poke through the blanket of last fall’s leaves.
