Potato Box/ Potato Condo

Over a month ago in March, I posted about potato boxes here.
I finally made my own potato box using some great-smelling, left-over cedar I had in the garage. I used a handsaw to cut the pieces down. I collect old, wooden boxes, so I used one as a model and simply copied the design. Then, I made a wood frame to place over my wooden box base. When my potatoes grow, I'll just toss the frame on and add some more soil, or straw, depending on if I can find straw somewhere.

Old wooden box and the sweet-smelling, new one.

The base box and the top frame... apparently made of a different type of wood.

You can't imagine how giddy I feel when I look at my little wooden potato box. Somehow, it's given me confidence to build other things... watch out world. I have a hand saw and I'm not afraid to use it.

** A few days later.
This weekend, I went to buy my seed potatoes and found none at Home Depot. I'm all bummed out because I guess this means that I missed the "window". If I can, I'll buy some online.

June 1, 2012
I love being wrong. It's my favorite. 
I realized that I didn't miss the "potato window" when I stumbled across some seed potatoes at a farm store a couple weeks ago. I bought five Yukon Golds, tossed them in and covered them with dirt. They're growing! 

Two-week-old, Yukon Gold, seed potatoes sprouting.

Mid June

Here are the small fries a few weeks later.

Mid August
At that point in the potato experiment, the vines grew taller and I tossed some dried leaves over them. My hose didn't reach to the planter, so they didn't get much water. Then we had a very un-Seattle stretch of no rain and I flat-out ignored the little buggers. 
Around late July, the vines died back and I was feeling pretty bad about myself. I pouted for a couple weeks until I thought, "what the hell? I may as well reach into the dirt box and see what's left of my seed potatoes."

Late August
And there they were, just waiting for me!!
Beautiful, firm Yukon Golds. From the 4 seed potatoes (the fifth turned into mush), I think I got about 15-20 potatoes! The kicker, was how amazing they tasted! This is the perfect thing to grow. You chuck some seeds into a box, pour some dirt over it, ignore it and then BOOM! Food on the dinner table.
Next year I'm going all out. I'm going to direct sow possibly and maybe try some different varieties.