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How to Plant and Grow Potatoes (In Containers or the Ground)

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Knowing how to plant potatoes correctly, including their depth, spacing, soil needs, sunlight, water, and temperature preferences, will get your harvest off to the best start possible and provide your family with food for months to come. Read on to learn how to plant potatoes the right way (including how to grow them in containers).

Image of a sprouting potato in the ground.

One of my favorite things about the pioneer lifestyle is growing our own food. But with recent biotech and GMOs sneaking into our food, it's not just about being frugal or the added health benefits (you did know homegrown vegetables and fruits have more nutrients, right?), it's about protecting our families.

Knowing how to grow enough food at home to feed my family for a year, having some basic gardening secrets tucked in your back pocket, knowing how to protect crops from common garden pests, and even how to grow a large scale garden without acreage will help get you headed down the right path to self-sufficiency.

Growing potatoes is just one small step in starting a vegetable garden.

Favorite Potato Varieties

If you haven't grown potatoes, now might be the perfect time to start. Many of you know I'm a firm believer in growing heirloom plants, and the potato is no exception. We have grown many varieties of potatoes over our 20 years of gardening, and we've settled on a few of our favorites…

  • Russet
  • Russet Norkotah PH
  • German Butterball

The above are my favorites for long-term storage, we've previously grown a purple potato called Purple Majesty. It has 10 times more antioxidants than a regular potato (and my kids love the color… lavender mashed potatoes anyone?).

Red and yellow potatoes arranged on a burlap sack.

There are three basic kinds of potatoes:

Early, Mid-Season & Late Potatoes

Before planting just any old potato, you need to know how many potatoes you're growing (get my free chart on how much to plant per person for a year's worth of food here), how quickly your family will eat them, and if you're hoping to still be eating that potato harvest the following spring (meaning you'll need to choose good storage varieties). Read on for more info about the kinds of potatoes.

Early-Season Potatoes

Also called “new potatoes” or basically, potatoes that haven't fully matured or finished growing.

Early season potatoes are ready for harvest in about 75-90 days. This is a great variety to grow if you're looking to get multiple plantings in one area of your garden.

If you live in a climate with very warm summers (staying above 90 degrees for days and weeks at a time), these early season potatoes will be your best bet.

Likewise, if you want to plant a late-summer garden for an early fall harvest, then early season potatoes are great for planting mid to late August.

If your potatoes have been prone to disease, the early potatoes may also be a better choice as they're the least likely to get blight because they're generally harvested well before disease sets in.

Early potatoes are not great storage potatoes, so these will be your “fresh eating” crop from the garden.

Early Season Potato Varieties

  • Alta
  • Cheiftan
  • Norland
  • Red Pontiac
  • Yukon Gold

Mid-Season Potatoes

Similar to early-season potatoes, mid-season potatoes will be ready fairly quick in about 95-110 days.

Mid-season potatoes aren't always great storage potatoes, so be sure to read up on the variety you're buying to know if they're better for fresh eating or long-term storage.

Mid-Season Potato Varieties

  • Adirondack Blue and Red
  • Purple Majesty
  • Gold Rush
  • Red Gold

Late-Season Potatoes

Because I like to grow food for my family that will last us a whole year, the late-season potatoes tend to be my go-to potatoes.

Late-season potatoes are sometimes referred to as “Main Crop Potatoes” and are generally ready to harvest in about 120-135 days.

Late-Season Potato Varieties

  • German Butterball
  • Fingerling
  • Russet
  • Russian Blue
Image of a BCS two-wheel tractor digging a trench.

Supplies Needed for Growing Potatoes

You don't need much to grow potatoes successfully, but there is some general knowledge that will come in handy throughout the growing season. So stick with me…

  • Seed Potatoes – see my favorite varieties mentioned above
  • Soil – Potatoes aren't picky, but crop rotation is important, don't plant potatoes where you had tomatoes the year prior, and it's best if your soil is rich, well-draining, and acidic (4.8 to 5.5 pH).
  • Space – whether you're planting in the garden or in containers, you need to have enough space for the tubers to develop.
  • Sunlight – potatoes grow best in full sunlight. Plant them in a place that gets all day sun and you should be golden.
  • Water – consistent watering is key for potatoes. Try not to go too long between waterings, and don't over-saturate them when you're watering.
seed potatoes on tray

Seed Potatoes

When growing potatoes you can only grow them from seed potatoes. The potatoes you've purchased in the grocery store are not suitable for seed potatoes because they can carry disease (remember the potato famine in Ireland during the 1800s, it was caused by a late blight that infected the soil and crops for multiple years). They also may have been sprayed with chemicals to keep them from sprouting on the shelf. Source

Seed potatoes are chosen for their resistance to disease and are certified disease-free, starting with disease-free potatoes is key.

I know some people do plant potatoes they've purchased from the store once they've sprouted (with great success!), but I'd rather not take the gamble of introducing any disease to my soil and don't think it's worth the risk. Each person must decide this for themselves.

If you grow and harvest your potatoes correctly, you can grow your own seed potatoes for the following year, essentially having an endless supply of potatoes. Stick with me, we'll talk about that soon.

Where to Buy Seed Potatoes

As mentioned above, we grow enough potatoes each year to have extra left over for our own seed potatoes. But if you've gotta start somewhere, so if you're looking to grow potatoes and are in need of seed potatoes, try some of the following places:

NOTE: Many places completely sell out of seed potatoes. It's a good idea not to wait until mid to late spring to try and buy them. When possible, order seed potatoes ahead of time (generally in the winter) to be sure you get on the list when they're in stock.

If you can't find seed potatoes, ask a friend if they'd be willing to share, you can cut your seed potatoes into pieces (be sure there are at least two “eyes” per piece) and it weighs at least 1 to 2 ounces per piece, allow them a couple of days to dry out and “scab up” to prevent rotting once planted, then proceed with the planting instructions below.

chitting seed potatoes on a tray before planting

What is “Chitting” Potatoes?

Chitting refers to forcing potatoes to sprout. If you've stored your potatoes correctly, they may not be sprouting come spring when it's time to plant.

To chit potatoes, bring them into a dark room that's around 70 degrees F for about two weeks. This brings them out of dormancy and allows them to sprout.

Once they've begun to sprout, you can move them to a cooler location with decent light for a few weeks until you're ready to plant.

Image of three potatoes in a trench spaced apart about 12 inches.

How to Plant Potatoes

There are many ways to grow potatoes, so it's important to consider both your space and how many potatoes you want to grow for both fresh eating and storing.

Growing Methods

If you're short on garden space, you can grow potatoes in containers or fabric bags. They can be grown in raised beds, long rows that you'll hill up, or even in mounds. Some people even grow them in trash cans! The moral is to grow with what you have at the moment.

Choose which growing method works best for you:

If you don't have the garden space for potatoes, they make an excellent container crop. You basically follow the same method as I'll lay out below, however, instead of digging a trench, you simply add a little dirt at the bottom of your container, then fill with more dirt instead of mounding each time. I discuss more about this method in Using Vegetable Grow Bags in the Garden. I've even seen pictures of people using large plastic laundry baskets… get creative!

Image of feet walking through the garden adding compost over the soil.

Soil

When growing potatoes plant them in well-draining acidic soil that's been fertilized. Ideal pH levels for potatoes is 4.8 to 5.5 They will grow in slightly more acidic soil and usually do okay into the 6 pH range but if they're in more alklaine soil (above 7.5 pH) they can't uptake many of the macronutrients in the soil and are more prone to developing scab.

Photo of a jar of elemental sulfur and some sprinkled into the ground.

It's not advised to try and change your pH level by more than 1 point in a twelve-month period. Our soil pH range is naturally around 6 (slightly acidic) so at planting time I add 0.2 pounds of elemental sulfur (make sure it says elemental sulfur to avoid aluminum) per 10-foot row. This will lower the pH by 1 point.

Potatoes are heavy feeders. You don't want them to rot in the ground or develop a fungus. Never plant where you had tomatoes or eggplant (they are susceptible to the same diseases) the previous year and always rotate your potatoes each year.

The ideal soil for growing potatoes is:

  • Well draining
  • Loose and fluffy
  • Acidic

Well Draining

The biggest nemesis of growing potatoes is having them rot in the ground. This can be avoided by consistent watering and well-draining soil.

Potatoes don't like to be soggy, or sit in extremely wet soil. The soil should hold water well, but not pool or puddle up. It sounds funny to want well-draining soil that holds water, but that's exactly the “just right” Goldilocks effect we're looking for.

Well-draining soil is also what allows me to store my potatoes in the ground all winter and harvest them as we need them in the kitchen!

Close up shot of the BCS tractor digging a ditch.

Loose and Fluffy

As mentioned above, make sure your soil is light and fluffy and not too compact (you don't want it to form a solid ball when squeezed together in your hand).

If your soil isn't well-draining, then you'll need to add in some organic matter (but nothing with too much nitrogen). Adding some compost and or worm castings will give the potatoes the nutrition they need to grow nice big greens, but also develop large tubers as well.

Too much nitrogen in the soil and you'll get nice big greens, but tiny, underdeveloped tubers (no good!).

Temperature & Sunlight

Potatoes prefer cooler weather and full sunlight and can be put in the ground as early as 2 weeks before your last frost date.

They'll tolerate some heat, but if temps stay at or above the 90s for prolonged periods of time, they may die. Our summers are extremely mild in the Pacific Northwest, so I don't have to deal with this.

We generally plant our potatoes the first to mid part of May.

Water

When watering potatoes, consistency is best. Try not to go too long between waterings, and don't over-saturate them when you're watering.

A general rule of thumb is to give them about 1 inch of water per week.

Preparing Your Seed Potatoes

Image of a potato with sprouts being placed into the soil.

Once your seed potatoes are sprouting, you have two options. If the potato is large and has more than four eyes, you can cut your seed potato (giving you two seed potatoes). However, your seed potato needs to be at least 1 to 2 ounces in order to have enough food to feed the emerging sprouts so I don't cut my potatoes unless they're at least 4 ounces in size.

I prefer to plant whole seed potatoes, these produce more pounds per plant for me and less chance of the potato rotting in the ground.

How to Cut Seed Potatoes Before Planting

If you do wish to cut your seed potatoes, there are a few simple rules to follow:

  • don't cut smaller than 1 ounce
  • make sure each piece has 1 to 2 eyes
  • allow cut potato to set out over 1 to 2 days to scab over (dry out)
  • if cut part isn't scabbed fully, dip in elemental sulfur at planting time

Depth & Spacing

Close up shot of the BCS tractor digging a ditch.
Image of a potato with sprouts being placed into the soil.
Image of two potatoes 12 inches apart being measured with a tape measure.

Dig a trench about 6 to 10 inches deep. Place your cut potato with the eyes facing upwards (or plant whole potatoes as shown below if you have plenty to spare). Space 12 inches apart.

Photo of a jar of elemental sulfur and some sprinkled into the ground.
Image of a potato in the soil with a tape measure showing it's 6 inches deep.
Image of a tape measure in the ground with dirt piled up about six inches.

I also like to add in some elemental sulfur to help acidify and reduce scab. Cover the potatoes with about 2 inches of soil.

What Are The Best Companion Plants For Potatoes

Image of a potato plant growing above the soil.

Companion planting is used to help both repel bad pests, attract “good” pests, and placing plants together that benefit one another.

Don't plant potatoes with other members of the nightshade family (tomatoes and peppers) because they are all susceptible to blight. Avoid planting potatoes with carrots and squash.

Potatoes do well when planted near beans, brassicas, corn, garlic, peas and onions.

Read How to Get Rid of Bugs on Plants Naturally Tips that Actually Work for more tips

What to Plant with Potatoes to Keep Bugs Away

Basil – repels potato beetles

Nasturtium – repeles potato beetles and attracts beneficial insects, also helps to repel cabbage moth so is excellent to plant with potatoes if you've paired them with brassicas.

Marigold- deters root nematodes (this happens once the plant is chopped up and worked back into the soil for the following year), repels potato bus and white fly. Attracts beneficial insects such as hover flies, lacewings, ladybird beetles, mantids, robber flies, some spiders and predatory mites.

Mounding or Hilling Potatoes

After potatoes have sprouted, you'll need to mound soil around them. We have lots of slugs here, so I don't use mulch, just good old dirt.

You may wonder if mounding is really that important. I'm here to tell you, it is.

Potatoes are produced from the tubers, and if left exposed to light, they'll turn green and possibly poisonous. (Yes, this is true.) When you see green on potatoes, it's chlorophyll (harmless) BUT it can be a sign it has a higher level of solanine (a glycoalkaloid and toxic chemical) so you want to avoid eating large amounts green potatoes.

Mounding helps protect the tubers (potatoes) from getting too much sun and keeps them safe for consumption.

Mounding also helps inhibit blight. Mound the soil up once the foliage has reached about 8 inches high with a hoe. It's better to not mound the soil too steep, so it won't wash away in the rain. Mound up until only 2 inches of leaves are left showing.

Additional mounding of dirt should be done once you have new growth of about 4-6 inches. This will be repeated 3 to 4 times throughout the growing season.

Once potatoes are blossoming, stop mounding. You can damage the new tender shoots beneath the surface of the soil.

Two images, one of a potato plant with growth about 8 inches high, the other image of the potato having dirt mounded up and only a couple of inches showing.

Have you had success growing potatoes? What kind of potato are you growing this year?

More Gardening Articles

7 DIY Ways to Compost at Home

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Here's 7 DIY ways to compost at home. Learning how to compost at home is high on the list of home gardeners.

7 DIY ways to compost at home. Get your garden soil in the best shape with these easy ways to begin composting at home.

Ever heard the term black gold? It's usually in reference to compost and to a gardener, it's as valuable as gold.

There are some basic rules to compost, but like most things, everyone has their own twist and advice. The beauty of all things pioneering today and homesteading is suiting it to meet your unique situation, wants, and needs.

Composting is the breaking down of natural materials into a rich soil to feed your plants, fruits, and vegetables.

In regards to composting you'll hear the terms brown and green. Brown equals carbon material and green equals nitrogen material. Browns are wood, paper, and dead leaves to name a few. Greens are grass clippings, food scraps, and manure.

Recommended Resources for Composting:

I don't know about you, but as much of an DIY kind of pioneer as I am, sometimes I'd rather purchase the tools to give me a quick result without all the labor and time intensive as making it all myself. If you want to get started quickly, then these are options to help cut out some of the trial and error. Because often times, time is our most precious commodity.

Fastest way to get compost for your garden–> Compost Tumbler 

Easy Worm Bin with instructional manual and DVD! –> 3 Tray Worm Composter

Counter top compost pail (keep the scraps contained and cut down trips to the compost area)–> Stainless Steel Compost Pail

Items recommended to compost:

Algae, ashes from wood fireplace, cardboard, coffee grounds, dyer lint, eggshells, hair, and manure from horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens, leaves, sawdust and wood chips

Items not recommended to compost:

Ash from charcoal or coal, bird poo, dog feces, fish scraps, meat, milk, and cheese, or other greasy items. For more in depth check out this article on 10 things you shouldn't compost.

In order to create compost you'll need the right balance of brown to green, or carbon to nitrogen items. This post has some great info on the carbon ratio to begin your compost pile with and then how to progress with the ratio as your pile ages.

7 DIY Ways to Compost at Home

1. Ever heard of vermicomposting? Maybe you've heard reference to a worm bin. Either way, it's using worms to make compost and even if the thought of worms makes you go ew, the thought of wonderful nutrients for your garden will help you get over it. Here's how to make a worm bin and get started with vermicomposting.

2. The fastest way to get started with making your own compost is with a tumbler. Here are 3 reasons to use a compost tumbler…  A compost tumbler heats up the quickest and is the easiest for you to turn on a regular basis and requires will give results the fastest.

This compost tumbler will get you black gold super fast–> Compost Tumbler for under $100.

3. I love this tutorial for building a dirt road girl compost tumbler. Basically, it's a compost tumbler that can be moved to the area of the garden you want to put compost on. Todd has step by step instructions with pictures and shows how he built this traveling compost tumbler for his wife after she got cancer.

4. You can use a compost tumbler, compost bin, compost pile, and vermicomposting.

5. You all know I love my chickens, right? Besides their eggs and keeping the bugs at bay. Did  I mention we didn't have any black carpenter ants since our chickens came to the homestead? And that is worth the occasional bombs of chicken poo in the yard. However, I'm loving how Jess uses her chickens and the chicken run for her compost pile. Check out chickens and compost for this pretty genius idea to put her chickens to work.

Want a quick, easy, and $13 option to make your own compost bin? I know, the $13 had me sitting up straighter, too. Check out this tutorial for cheap & easy DIY compost bin.

6. Compost bin on your counter top. This special little compost pail allows you to toss your food scraps right into it on your counter. It has a special charcoal filter to eliminate odors and once full, you take it to your regular compost bin outside. Cuts down on multiple trips and saves ya time.

7. Need one last option that requires nothing more than a hole in the ground? Check out this trench composting method from Survival at Home.

Bonus! 8. Wanna know the difference between hot and cold composting and which one is for you? Check out this article from Game & Garden for the low down.

Are ya ready?

Eartheasy Compost Tumbler Giveaway

Giveaway Now Over, congrats to the winner, Kate!

The Prepared Bloggers brought you a fantastic chance to win a fabulous prize! Wanna make sure you don't miss anymore of our fun giveaways? Sign up for our newsletter for once a week notices on all the homesteading goodies.

Eartheasy has graciously provided this composter as a prize so that YOU can get a jump start on your gardening this season! The Jora JK125 composter features a rodent-proof, rust-free, galvanized steel exterior, an insulated interior which makes it great for all climate types, and the ease of rotating your compost style with a twist of the drum to aerate your compost mixture quickly and easily. This particular composter holds 4.5 cubic feet (or 33 gallons) of compost material, and has dual chambers so you can use some and add more to a new pile as you go!

Meet the Bloggers Involved

The Busy B Homemaker

Homestead Lady

Little Blog on the Homestead

Game & Garden

Pioneering Today

Fabulous Farm Girl

Living Life in Rural Iowa

Blue Yonder Farms

Frugal Mama and the Sprout

Home Ready Home

Pasture Deficit Disorder

The Rural Economist

The Prepper Journal

Food Storage and Survival

Simply Living Simply

Pint Size Farm

Prepared Housewives

Preparedness Mama

Beyond Off Grid

Ready Nutrition

 

The reason we want all this lovely compost is for our garden. I just downloaded and started using this FREE garden seed calculator calender. Simply plug in your last frost date and it tells you when to start your seedlings, when to put them outside, when to direct sow, and when you'll begin harvesting for almost 50 different vegetables.

Probably the best gardening tool I've come across in a very long time. My friend Jason runs a family heirloom seed business and offers this for free. If at some point in the future you decide to purchase heirloom seeds from him, I receive an tiny commission. But, the calendar is absolutely positively FREE! And way cool.

Get your free garden planning calendar here!

10 Easy Steps to Grow Your Own Food

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There is little else more rewarding than growing your own food. It cuts down on your grocery bill, improves your health, makes you more self-sustainable, brings families together, and brings us closer to God.

10 Easy Steps to Grow Your Own Food

If you've never grown  your own food or had a garden, it can feel a little bit intimidating. It seems everyone has tons of advice on the wrong and right way to do things. But you just want to get growing. These 10 steps will get you growing your own food in no time.

Today's post is for beginner gardeners, but even if you're someone who is a life long gardener, there's some tips in here for you as well. I believe we're all on learning journey and can always learn more from others, so please, share your best tips in the comments section.

You've decided to plant a garden, congrats! Starting is often the hardest part, but you'll do great, and these tips are sure to help get your garden off to it's best start.

1. Know thy soil. Knowing what type of soil you have is very important for the success of your garden. You're thinking, I just want to put my plants in the dirt and get going, but trust me, you'll save yourself a ton of heartache if you do a little bit of prep work first.

Hang with me for a moment as we get a bit scientific. Your soil ph level will either be acidic, alkaline, or neutral. There are do it yourself tests at home, here's one from our affiliate partner Amazon Luster Leaf 1601 Rapitest Soil Test Kit or you can send off to have it tested at your local county extension office.

An easy way to know your soil ph's level is if you have a hydrangea plant. If the blossoms are blue your soil is acidic, if it's pink, your soil is alkaline.  Or try this at home soil test with vinegar and baking soda. Note: this will show extremes, it won't measure exactly or within a few points.

Mixing Coffee Grounds into Soil for amending ph level and creating fertile ground for your plants

2. Amend your soil accordingly. Now that you know your soil's ph level you'll need to amend your soil or change the PH level. But how? It's easy peasy. If your soil is too alkaline add coffee grounds, citrus peels, peat moss, or pine needles.

If your soil is to acidic add lime or wood ash.

Our soil is slightly acidic, which works well for raspberries, blueberries, and potatoes. However, beets and brassicas like neutral soil, so we add the ash from our wood stove in the area we plant our beets and other brassicas, like cabbage, broccoli, etc.

We add well rotted (not fresh, it's too hot and will burn your plants) chicken and cattle manure, with leaves, and straw. We use the refuse from the animals on our farm. If you have a local farm, they'll let you haul off manure for free. I'd make sure they only feed organic food if using the poop for your garden. Most plants are heavy nitrogen feeders, so this helps add nitrogen and organic matter back into our garden soil.

 3. Plant what you eat. I have a free chart and guide in my Heirloom Gardening Guide-Planting to Save Money, when you sign up for my email list. This will look slightly different for each family. Don't plant something your family doesn't like and won't eat a lot of. If you only like a few eggplants a year, don't bother planting them. If you eat cucumbers and potatoes all year long, then plant them.

4. Start small. If you're anything like me, you like to jump in both feet first. When planting, it's easy to slip in another row or grab two more packets of seed. But the care, harvest, and preserving of all those plants can be overwhelming. Don't set yourself up for failure. Start with the main crops your family eats the most of. Once you've mastered those, add in more.

5. Where to get you seed. I'm a big believer in heirloom seeds. Our garden is completely heirloom plants only, in fact our bean seed has been saved and passed down in our family for over 100 years. You can ask gardening friends for some heirloom seed or order on line. Two companies I trust for non-GMO, organic, and heirloom seeds are Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and our affiliate partner Seeds for Generations. Seeds for Generations is an heirloom company ran by a father and his children, which started when he was teaching them about gardening. I love those kind of stories and supporting small folks.

6. When to plant. It's important to know when to plant your seeds. In order to do this, you need to know the last frost date for your area. Reading the back of the seed package will tell you when to put your seeds out according to the date.  We put our warm weather plants out the third to last week of May. We harvest almost all of our warm weather plants by mid-September. Find your last frost date here. 

Keeping track of all your gardening things will make life much easier. Here's a great free chart on when to start your seeds for both indoors or direct outdoor sowing.

7. Commit to your garden. Know and commit to spending time in your garden. Tell yourself you're going to do one thing every day for your garden. Some days it might just require walking through and inspecting things. Other days you'll be weeding, picking, or watering.

Fencing is an option to keep deer and other critters our of your vegetables.

8. Don't be afraid of failure. Even the most experienced gardeners have plant and crop failure. Gardening is a journey. Every season and year you'll learn more and new things. If you have a total flop on your tomatoes this year, talk to other folks, read books, listen to podcasts, and learn what to try differently. Everyone suffers a gardening loss at sometime. Don't let it stop you from learning and pressing on. 

How to grow basil indoors all winter long without soil. Harvest fresh herbs year round and never plunk down money at the store for herbs again.

9. Have a natural pest control plan. We live way out in the sticks. Deer are one of the worst pests to our garden. We have our fruit trees and vegetable garden fenced. This also helps if our cows happen to get out. Here's a great article on the 10 Tips for Organic gardening and pest control

10. Don't let the size of your planting space deter you. Not everyone has a huge yard or acreage for planting. Don't let this stop you. Many plants can be grown in containers. Small blueberry bushes do well in containers, as well as almost every herb, strawberries, garlic, and tomatoes.

Need more gardening help? Check out all of our gardening articles here to get you going.

Heirloom gardening- how the pioneers did it at www.MelissaKNorris.com
Heirloom gardening- how the pioneers did it at www.MelissaKNorris.com

3 Tips for Planning Gardening Success in Winter

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When I asked on my Facebook page which post you'd rather read about, gardening was above and beyond the clear winner. If you're sitting in one of the frigid cold, fresh winter storm, and two feet of snow areas, you might be wondering why on earth I'd be writing a gardening post now. I mean, ya can't plant a blessed thing outside right now.

3 Tips for Planning Garden Success in Winter Get a jump on your best growing year ever or starting a garden for the first time!

You're right. We can't plant anything right now, but experienced gardener's know, the best gardens come from some early planning. And that my friend, is something we can do right now.

How does one plan a garden, you ask? So glad you did. (I can carry on a conversation with myself quite well)

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Homemade Refried Beans in 10 Minutes

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In my quest to eliminate processed foods, I'm learning how to make even more of my own food from scratch. Like many of you, I'm busy and some recipes take a lot of prepping or time. I canned up a bunch of our heirloom October beans this fall. I've used them in soups, chili, and casseroles, but decided to try them with tacos. Enter my homemade refried bean recipe, that get this, only takes 10 minutes to make!

Homemade Refried Beans in 10 Minutes www.MelissakNorris.com

While I love our Tarheel Green Beans, the versatility of October beans make them a close second as my favorite. Like our Tarheel beans, this seed came from North Carolina. If you're just venturing into heirloom seeds, beans are the perfect intro as you don't have to worry about cross-pollination or fermenting when saving the seeds.

Homemade Refried Beans in 10 Minutes Ingredients

Though I'm getting better, I don't always plan out or prep our meals in advance. So when I find a quick recipe or easy way to do it, I love to share it with others. I couldn't believe how good these homemade refried beans turned out in so little time. 

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Giveaway-Heirloom Garden Seed & copy of Pioneering Today!!

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One of the joys of gardening is being able to share with family and friends. While I can't share my produce with all of you, I can share my heirloom Tarheel green bean seed. It's been in my family for approximately a hundred years going back to my great-grandparents and beyond.

Heirloom Seed & Book Giveaway @MelissaKNorris
Heirloom Seed & Book Giveaway @MelissaKNorris

My grandparents moved from North Carolina to Washington state in 1941. They traveled with two other families on the back of flat-bed truck they converted to a camper with bunks. One of the times they brought with them were their Tarheel green bean seed.

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Is the Bible Against GMO Gardening?

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gmo

Chances are you've heard the term GMO (genetically modified organism) lately. In most cases this is in reference to scientists and major farmers growing plants that have been genetically modified. This is very different from hybrid seeds. Genetically modified seeds are injected with DNA from completely unrelated species. I'm talking animal cells, bacteria, and even viruses.

The reason for this is they can inject an entire crop so that they can simply spray the whole field with a pesticide and it won't kill the crop. Which means the plant soaks up the pesticide and then we get to eat it.

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