Hey guys, Derrick and Paula here from Back
to Reality. So last week, we showed you how we’ve been
working to expand our garlic crop, but as some of you may recall, we also decided to
move our potatoes outside the garden fence as well. So today, we’re going to quickly go over
how we did that, and then do our final harvest to figure out how well it turned out. Now last year, we grew our first ever potato
crop in one of our Ruth Stout beds, and honestly it was incredibly rewarding, because it was
super easy and resulted in a pile of food. All we did was lay out some spoiled hay on
top of the grass the previous autumn, and then in the spring, we pulled the hay apart,
tossed in the spuds, and covered them back up until it was time to harvest. That was it. No digging, tilling, watering, or weeding. We did add a bit of extra mulch on top as
the plants grew to keep the sun off the tubers, but when compared to the usual method of hilling
with earth, we can confidently say that these potatoes were no work at all. If you haven’t watched our previous videos
about this method, we highly recommend that you check them out first, so I’ve added
some links to the description. But suffice it to say, our only regret was
that we hadn’t planted WAY more of them. Paula and I eat a lot of potatoes throughout
the year, and so if we ever hope to become fully food-self-sufficient, one row simply
isn’t going to cut it. And so that brings us back to our garden layout. When we first started building our fence a
few years ago, we figured 50 feet by 50 feet would be more than enough space. But as our crops increased, it quickly became
apparent that we would eventually out-grow our confines. But a fence only protects against larger animals,
like rabbits, raccoons, and deer, so unless a particular veggie is part of their diet,
keeping them inside the fence would be of little benefit. That’s why we decided to plant our garlic
outside the fence, and when it was time to expand our potato crop, it was an easy decision
as well. You see, for the most part, garlic and potatoes
only suffer from small pests, like insects and nematodes. And while these can pose serious problems
for your plants, they can also easily pass through any fencing material anyway. So outside the fence makes good sense. For the initial move, we started with a new
much larger 20 foot x 40 foot ruth stout bed, but we have plenty of space to expand even
further into the field, if needed. We’ve covered the Ruth Stout method pretty
extensively already, so I won’t bother going into much detail now, but essentially, we
mowed the area last fall, and covered it with a thick layer of old hay. Then in the spring, we decided to create walking
paths, by removing some of the mulch. Our intention was to mimic the shape of a
keyhole garden to a certain extent, in order to minimize the amount of paths, while also
maximizing the amount of easily accessible growing space. This also had the side benefit of subdividing
our plot into 7 sections so that we could easily separate the different varieties when
planting. Plus, it also gave us an early opportunity
to observe the ruth stout method in action. It had only been one winter, and yet much
of the old grass had already decomposed, and no new weeds had begun to grow. Simply looking to the lush grasses outside
the garden immediately highlights the difference you can make with just a layer of hay. Next came the actual planting, but once again,
it was a simple matter of lifting the hay, tossing in the spuds, and dropping the hay
back down. Our varieties included: 1 row of early season norland
3 rows of russet a row of pontiac
Another of early season warba And finally, in the last row, we planted a
mix of leftovers that we had saved from last years crop. These had simply been kept in a cardboard
box throughout the winter, and as you can see, they’d grown some pretty impressive
stolens. All in all, we planted about 34 lbs of seed
potatoes, and it took us less than half an hour. We even had quite a bit of space left over,
so we decided to throw in a row of onion sets, as well. Then as usual, all that was left was to wait. But after several weeks, the leaves began
breaking through the mulch. Next came some flowers, and eventually by
around mid summer, we began weekly, and then almost daily meal-sized mini-harvests. This continued until a couple weeks ago when
the foliage had fully died off on our two rows of early varieties. So we decided to harvest them completely,
and much to our delight, we gathered a combined total of 65 lbs. And now, it’s finally time to do our full
harvest, so come with us! Just like last year, harvesting potatoes from
a Ruth Stout garden is a simple matter of pulling aside the hay to expose the tubers,
and then collecting them. No tools are required, there’s no risk of
cutting or damaging the potatoes in any way, and the soil never has to be disturbed. But speaking of the soil, keep in mind that
one year ago, this was all thick grasses, weeds, and wildflowers. And yet now, it’s fully exposed earth with
plenty of composted material mixed in. Plus, I know I mention this a lot, but honestly,
just look at all the earthworms. They’re everywhere. And they’re not the only critters who seem
to enjoy this natural habitat either. For example, we came across toads, blue spotted
salamanders, and even a northern red bellied snake. But don’t worry, this little guy is completely
harmless to humans, and spends most of his time eating grubs, slugs, and snails. So, he’s pretty bad news for our slimy friends,
but he’s also an excellent form of natural pest control, and an important part of a healthy
ecosystem. I have to say, we really enjoy the process
of harvesting potatoes in this way. It’s easy. It’s relaxing. And honestly it’s also a lot of fun, uncovering
so much food and interacting with so much nature. Once everything was harvested, we collected
them all and weighed them. So now let’s look at the numbers. As I mentioned, we initially planted approximately
34 lbs of seed potatoes, and our first harvest of the earlier varieties yielded 65 lbs. Then there’s our weekly and daily harvests
of young potatoes throughout the growing season, which we conservatively estimate to be around
30lbs – especially considering that would have weighed even more if left to mature fully. And finally, today’s harvest weighed in
at a whopping 242 lbs. Which gives us a grand total of 337. Or about 10 times our initial input. Now I know this may not break any records
or anything, but considering how little effort we had to put into this, I’m still pretty
damn impressed. Oh and really quickly, our onions turned out
good too. If you remember our first attempt in a new
ruth stout bed last year, most were around golf ball size, but this year we averaged
around tennis ball. So they’re still a bit small, but I’m
pretty happy with that. However, this wouldn’t be much of a learning
experience if we didn’t include a few lessons. So let’s chat about some of the things we
would do differently next year. First of all, the paths. In hindsight, it would have been far better
to actually just leave the mulch in place and simply not plant where we plan to walk,
because after the potato plants begin to grow, the lack of vegetation between the rows would
have clearly indicated the paths anyway, and without the mulch, the area quickly filled
back in with weeds. Also, though we had originally planned on
cutting our potatoes into smaller sections this year, time constraints simply didn’t
allow for it. So, we still don’t know which way is truly
best, but we hope to try both next year. Plus, as you can see, a few of the tubers
ended up all knobby and deformed, and from what I’ve read, that tends to happen as
a result of inconsistent watering, which actually makes a lot of sense, because we never watered
them at all, but instead relied entirely on rainfall and moisture retention from the mulch. Plus, this year, we had a record-breaking
drought for a couple months, followed by some pretty intense rainstorms later in the summer. But despite how funny they may look, it shouldn’t
have any effect on the taste or nutrition, so we’re not concerned about it. However, we may consider some form of irrigation
in the future, just as a backup plan. And finally, though 337 lbs is an amazing
harvest, it’s likely still not enough to keep us fed all winter while also leaving
enough for replanting in the spring. So, I think we’ll probably consider expanding
our growing area even more than we did this time around. But for now, we need to figure out how we
plan to store all of these. So we’ll see you guys soon!
