PotAto, Potaato...however you say it, I'm growing them

I am happy to have the space to finally grow some of those crops there was never room for in my city lot.  I had to watch what I grew in my back yard as the black walnut was rough on most crops in the Solanacea family.  Peppers were my one exception for some reason.  Potatoes are in the same family and they take up plenty of room, especially if you really want to have more than just a meal or two.  I bought two bags of seed potatoes a couple weeks ago while out on a shopping run to Tractor Supply Co.  I chose Yukon Gold and Red Norlands.  I grew the reds before with success.  I kept them in a warm location with some light and got them to start sprouting as the package instructed.  That was the easy part.  
I had put a couple hills for my daughter at the old garden plot as they are looking a growing variety, not quantity.  She was given instructions to hill soil around the growing sprouts as they came up.  Potatoes grow sprouts from the eyes on their skins.  As the sprouts grow up, they flower and will grow potatoes at those points along the stem.  The grower must continue to put soil, mulch, straw or other type of growing media up the plant to keep the potatoes covered.  Failure to do so will cause them to turn green and that is what causes toxic buildup under the skin.  Don't eat the green part of a potato.
What I put in for her was small potatoes compared to what I was doing.  After counting up the tubers I had left, I was looking at 32 holes without cutting the potatoes apart.  I chose not  to cut the potatoes apart.  Remember how I said this garden has a seed bank that puts Fort Knox to shame?  I am not going to spend my summer hoeing the garden, so weed barrier will be my tool to combat excessive weed potential.  I pulled out my nearly full box of landscape fabric pin and utilized a piece of weed cloth that had cuts and slashes from a former job.  I found that the selected piece was EXACTLY the right length and width for my area after folding under the damaged areas.  I knew it was going to be a good day.  The forty year old me would have had the cloth down and potatoes in by lunch.  The fifty some year old me took most of the day.  I love to take a beer break, visit with my grown daughters, and make plans with my husband while in the middle of gardening season now.  My younger self would plow through and plant the entire yard in a weekend.  With age comes wisdom (and less endurance).
The fabric was laid over and area that was tilled last fall, but left as is this spring.  I used the weed dragon to burn some of the weeds and handed off to my younger daughter in Tom Sawyer fashion for a spell while on the phone with my older daughter.  Yes, with age comes wisdom.  I got a tape measure out to calculate the spacing between hills.  After setting the tape measure on the patio table, I carefully eyed the area and just put dots of paint where I thought I would make the cuts instead.  It worked much better than the OCD method I was going to enlist initally as well as much faster.
I cut an X in the fabric and tucked the triangles of fabric under the cloth to create a square planting area of one square foot, more or less.  I dug a plug of soil out, placed it on the side and then put a base of compost 1 to 2 inches deep in the place of the clay I removed.  I was encouraged to have found a few earthworms in the present soil as this has not been the case in past excavations.  My whole potato set went in the hole followed by more compost of another 3 to 4 inches.  The plug of soil will serve as back fill when the plants grow up and need to be hilled.  The process continued until all holes were created and filled with one potato set.

After several breaks for beer and conversation, all the holes were finally filled.  I had 32 sets of Yukon Gold and Red Norland Potatoes underground and ready to grow.  

I did one more task to make the job complete.  A trip around the grounds with the John Deere Gator and pitch fork cleaned up piles of winterizing straw and provided future cover for my future potato patch.  I was able to kill two birds with one stone for the mutual benefit of my garden beds.

Now for those cabbage plants hardened off on my porch...