Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Claudia & Linda" <dragonhill2@netzero.net>]

Yukon Gold potatoes is all I bothered to plant this year.  I used to plant a
Pontiac Red and Kennebec White but we like the Yukon so much that I decided
to use all my potato space for them this year.

I also used a permaculture planting method for half my crop called
"hugelculture".  First I put down a large pile of branches from pruning,
blowdowns, etc. On top of the branches I piled weeds and grass that I had
cut, on top of the weeds I piled compost and finished the whole thing off
with a layer of dirt.  Hugelculture means pile culture.  I planted seed
potatoes in the dirt and once they sprouted I mulched them with straw.  I
mulched them once more, just before the bloomed.

The other half of my crop I planted as usual, a couple of inches in soil.
Mulched with straw once the plants were a few inches tall, then mulched
again as needed as they grew.

Both crops are ready now to be harvested and just today I was checking to
see how they did.  The potatoes planted in the usual way did well, producing
3 to 4 medium to large potatoes and several smaller ones.  The potatoes
planted in the hugelkulture method are amazing.  I only dug one up but if it
is any indicator, that's the way I'll be planting potatoes from now on.
There's just a mass of potatoes beneath the straw.  I'm not even sure how
many are there because I was actually busy with another garden chore and
just curious to see how the potatoes had done so I just lifted aside the
straw and explored underneath a bit.  Tomorrow I will dig deeper and make a
full report.

Claudia