Years ago I tried growing some Charlotte salad spuds in roll-up plastic sacks. It's one of those space-saver permaculture crops-in-your-yard things. They grew, but then died off: eaten by slugs who lived along the sack insides.
The next spring, I emptied out the sacks and lo! There were some potatoes after all - sprouting ones. I planted them up. The same thing happened again.
Last year, I emptied out the sacks and lo! Once more with the potatoes. They come back every series. I duly planted the happy-looking ones out in my new raised bed, and they went great guns... until I went on holiday as it rained and they got blight and died.
Today, I was clearing the raised bed for a second round of square-foot growing (lessons learned: one plant per square foot except silly things like radishes; everything gets freaking huge; also put the sprawling plants on the far edge where they can just scare the schoolkids). What were those weird weeds? Lo, verily and behold: they're sprouting potatoes. The bastards just won't die. So once again they have pride of place, and once again I vow to look after them right up until I forget and they die.
With luck, they'll die a glorious death on my plate this time around.
The next spring, I emptied out the sacks and lo! There were some potatoes after all - sprouting ones. I planted them up. The same thing happened again.
Last year, I emptied out the sacks and lo! Once more with the potatoes. They come back every series. I duly planted the happy-looking ones out in my new raised bed, and they went great guns... until I went on holiday as it rained and they got blight and died.
Today, I was clearing the raised bed for a second round of square-foot growing (lessons learned: one plant per square foot except silly things like radishes; everything gets freaking huge; also put the sprawling plants on the far edge where they can just scare the schoolkids). What were those weird weeds? Lo, verily and behold: they're sprouting potatoes. The bastards just won't die. So once again they have pride of place, and once again I vow to look after them right up until I forget and they die.
With luck, they'll die a glorious death on my plate this time around.