Potatoes

I did not want to plant potatoes.  I *love* potatoes, of course, but as a
relatively inexperienced veggie gardener with limited space (sheesh, I have
1/3 acre, but it's all shady!) and as a fairly lazy person <grin> they
aren't exactly high on my priority list.  But my dear hubby brought home a
sack of seed 'taters from a co-worker and ordered me to plant them, being
from the "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" school.  I was curious,
though.  So I planted two 15-foot rows, one of the brownish variety and one
of the reddish variety (he didn't know what kind they were - I'm hoping one
is Yukon Gold) and they're growing like crazy.

Soooo....what do I do next?  I have read that I'll need to pile dirt up
around the stems as they grow, but I don't know where this dirt will be
coming from.  Several bags of topsoil and mulch, I guess.  Not a bad thing,
of course - my garden soil could always use some amending.  But what a pain
in the rear - for the price of this stuff, I could buy the potatoes at the
grocery.  My mom, who doesn't garden but was born on a farm (ha) claims that
when my grandma (who lived with us and theoretically knew what she was doing
in the garden) planted potatoes, she didn't do anything but stick 'em in the
ground and dig them up later.  No hills, no deep planting, just a hole and a
chunk of potato with an eye on it.

What do you think?

Pam
pkock@one.net
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