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Home About Just a little bit about me and what I do. Terms of Use A few simple guidelines for the use of our site.	Number of comments 2 Growing Potatoes...................... June 15, 2007 09:23:56 Everyone likes potatoes, or, at least I think they do. They certainly do around here. We like them baked, and mashed, and cut into wedges with seasoning and oil and baked on a cookie sheet, and all those little potatoes I get when I dig your crop wind up in a steamer. I don't grow as many as I used to but even a couple of rows can be a lot of work. So, here is what I do to cut down on the labor involved in growing potatoes.I grew potatoes for a long time in rows with the plants about 2 feet apart and the rows at least 2 feet apart. After the plants were up out of the ground I would run the tiller between the rows and then go along with a hoe and hill them up a little. My father-in-law used to tell me I should hill first and plant the potatoe in the hill but I never did. Usually the hilling operation was a first cultivation and weeding. And a few days or a week later another weeding was required and then another and another. Finally, I realized I do not have to do it this way. Several years ago I started just mulching the whole thing. I would wait untill the taters were up and then using newspaper and straw would cover the entire area. It worked well but it was a big job because the newspaper was tedious to handle. I thought about using that plastic mulch material that is supposed to breakdown after use but it was just too expensive. Then I discovered at Lowe's these rolls of brown paper that are sold as drop cloths for painting. They come in 24, 30, and 36 inch widths and they are 150 feet long. You can even take a saw and cut them in whatever width you want. You could make two 18 inch wide rolls out of one 36 incher. The paper is rolled on a heavy cardboard tube and I but one with a tree trimming saw. When I am ready to plant, I get the tiller out and just make one pass down the length of the row where I will plant. My tiller is not that big so this is not a real wide area. I then shut off the tiller and plant a row right down the middle of the tilled area. Then, I start the tiller up and work up and down one side until the worked area is wide enough to plant another row. At this point, I get one of the rolls of paper and starting at the end I start rolling it down the area so the edge is right where the plants will come up. You have to weight it down with straw or something and believe me you cannot do this when it is windy. Then I plant the next row along the other edge, work another area and repeat the process. When your plants come up you will wind up with something like this. Once the planting is done there is essentially no weeding from then on. There is a small strip the plants where the two sheets of paper do not meet which you can cover with straw easy enough. The potatoes do not need hilling because they will put their taters right under the paper or at least not very deep. The only thing I have noticed about this is the paper will sometimes hold puddles of water in low spots. I took a pitch fork and poked holes in it so the water would seep through. Once the potatoes are dug you can just till the whole thing up and the paper will be gone the next year. I have used this method on cabbage, tomatoes, and pepper plants. There is no weeding and the ground stays cool and moist underneath. The more straw you put on the better because when it is hot the ground will dry out with just the layer of paper. Comment on this article