Plant Perfect: Instagram Vs. Reality
I want to tell you a story about potatoes. My best friends from back home gifted me a subscription to Master Class for my birthday, and one of many tips I gleaned from Gangster Gardener Ron Finley was to grow potatoes in coffee sacks. I had never grown potatoes, and living in Idaho, I saw it as an opportunity to complete a rite of passage. Local Boise coffee roaster Caffeina gifted me some sacks and I filled them with seed potatoes and bags of G&B Organics acid planting mix from North End Nursery. Each time the potatoes green leaves got above four inches tall, I started adding more soil, as instructed. I was told that more potatoes would grow up the vine as I did this. Once the bags were full, I let them flower and the greens die back.
A coffee sack growing potatoes
Throughout the growing season, people who visited my garden were so impressed by the coffee bags. The anticipation built all summer long for the big reveal. But when it came time to dump the sack, our potato yield barely filled a small bowl. The few pounds of potatoes were hardly worth the multiple bags of soil I bought to grow them. Plus, it’s not as fun to post a picture of a small bowl of potatoes on Instagram when I expected a wheelbarrow full of them. I felt disappointed and frustrated, not to mention more than a little embarrassed.
That was when I reminded myself of something I often have to remember: My garden doesn’t subscribe to the rules of Instagram. It’s reality. The garden isn’t there for my vanity, or to be perfect, it’s there to teach me. This time, the lesson was about humility and practice. Sometimes, what I think will happen doesn’t, and that’s okay. I can try again. While the potato project didn’t yield the poundage I expected, I still got some potatoes, and I got lesson in growing myself and my garden that I can carry with me to the next season.
Every season has its triumphs, its failures and its lessons. The best part of each season is that when all the fruit has been picked and all the mistakes are made, we get to plant again. After I nursed my ego over the potatoes, I made my fall garden plan, and this Sunday, I planted those seeds.
Some of you might not even know that you can plant a fall garden. Some of you might feel like you missed the boat, but I’m here to tell you that now is a great time to plant for fall in the Treasure Valley. I’d love to help you do so. Click the link below to make a plan for your fall garden with me, and click this link to receive my free guide to fall gardening. I can’t wait to see how you grow.