- 2 months ago
Grow tons of potatoes with almost no work by using a simple method that skips the backbreaking digging most gardeners expect. The plants are laid on top of loosened soil, covered with compost-rich earth, and then hilled as they grow so the crop forms along the buried stems. That means less bending, less weeding, less watering, and no trenching at planting or forking through the bed at harvest.
The method works especially well in a narrow raised bed, grow bag, or container where air moves freely, moisture stays where the roots need it, and the potatoes stay safely covered from the light. You’ll also learn when flowering signals early new potatoes, why yellowing tops mean harvest time, and how a loose bed lets you lift clean potatoes by hand instead of digging them out. It’s a practical potato growing guide for beginners, homesteaders, and anyone with a bad back who still wants a big harvest.
Created for viewers searching for potato growing tips, easy gardening, low-maintenance vegetable gardening, raised bed potatoes, container potatoes, and homesteading food growing. If you want a simple garden tutorial with less work and more potatoes, this lazy potato method is built for spring planting, healthy yields, and easy harvests.
The method works especially well in a narrow raised bed, grow bag, or container where air moves freely, moisture stays where the roots need it, and the potatoes stay safely covered from the light. You’ll also learn when flowering signals early new potatoes, why yellowing tops mean harvest time, and how a loose bed lets you lift clean potatoes by hand instead of digging them out. It’s a practical potato growing guide for beginners, homesteaders, and anyone with a bad back who still wants a big harvest.
Created for viewers searching for potato growing tips, easy gardening, low-maintenance vegetable gardening, raised bed potatoes, container potatoes, and homesteading food growing. If you want a simple garden tutorial with less work and more potatoes, this lazy potato method is built for spring planting, healthy yields, and easy harvests.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a picture in most folks' minds of what it takes to grow potatoes, and it is a hard
00:05one.
00:06The digging of the trenches in the cold spring ground, the bending and the burying, and then in the fall
00:12the digging again,
00:14forking through the whole bed and spearing half your potatoes as you go.
00:18And that picture is why so many folks who would love a bin of their own potatoes never grow a
00:25one,
00:25for they think it is back-breaking work, a young man's job.
00:30Well, I am going to show you a way that is scarcely any work at all.
00:35No digging to plant and no digging to harvest.
00:39And it gives you not a poor crop for the ease of it, but the biggest, healthiest crop of potatoes
00:44you have ever pulled.
00:46It sounds too good, I know. Let me show you exactly how it is done.
00:52Here is the thing to understand, the little truth that the whole lazy method rests upon,
00:58and once you see it, the digging seems foolish.
01:02A potato does not grow down from the seed potato you plant, it grows up.
01:08You put a seed potato in the ground, and it sprouts up out of its eyes toward the light,
01:13and the new potatoes, your crop, form along that buried stem above the seed potato, not below it.
01:20So the whole reason folks dig a deep hole is a mistake, near enough.
01:25The potato does not need to be down deep.
01:27It only needs to be covered, and it can be covered by heaping soil up over it,
01:32just as well as by burying it in a hole.
01:35And that one understanding, that you cover rather than bury, changes everything,
01:41for it means you never have to dig at all.
01:44Quick word before we go further, my name is Esther Yoder,
01:48and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I am sharing today,
01:52and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
01:58I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:04If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught me lives,
02:10all in the one place.
02:12Now, to the potatoes.
02:14My grandmother grew potatoes to feed a large family right through the winter,
02:18and she was no stranger to hard work, but she was a wise woman,
02:22and she never did a lick of labor she did not have to.
02:25She used to say that the Lord did not make our backs to be bent double all day
02:29over what could be done standing up,
02:31and that the clever worker studies the plant and lets the plant do the heavy part.
02:36And that is just what this method is.
02:39You study how the potato truly grows, up and not down,
02:43and you let that do the work of the digging for you.
02:47So here is her lazy way, step by step,
02:50and it is easy enough that a child or an old woman with a bad back can do the whole
02:54of it.
02:55First, you pick your spot, a place that gets good full sun,
02:59for a potato wants the sun.
03:01Now, you may grow this way right on the ground,
03:03but the easiest of all is in a low bed,
03:06a simple frame you can knock together from a few old boards,
03:10a foot wide and as long as you like, and about 10 inches deep.
03:14That narrow bed is part of the secret, and I will tell you why shortly.
03:18You do not need to dig the bed over deep.
03:21Just loosen the soil a little where the frame sits, and you are ready.
03:25Now for the planting, and here is the lazy heart of it.
03:28You do not dig a single hole.
03:31You take your seed potatoes, the ones with the eyes on them,
03:34and you simply lay them right down on the surface of the loosened soil,
03:38eyes up, about 6 inches apart, all down the bed.
03:42That is all.
03:43You lay them on top of the ground like eggs in a basket.
03:46There is no digging, no burying, no bending into a hole.
03:51You just set them down.
03:53Whatever kinds you like, an early kind, a good keeper,
03:56a red or a white, lay them all out 6 inches apart.
04:01Then, once they are all laid out, you cover them over.
04:04You take good soil, your own compost-rich garden soil,
04:08or a mix of soil and well-rotted compost,
04:11and you cover the potatoes over with about 4 or 5 inches of it,
04:15right over the top of them where they lie.
04:17And into that top few inches, you may work a little feeding,
04:21some well-rotted manure or compost,
04:24or a plain all-purpose garden feed, if you have it,
04:27mixed into the soil over them.
04:29Then you water them in well,
04:31and that is the whole of the planting done.
04:34No digging whatsoever.
04:36Water it in and walk away.
04:38In about three weeks, the plants sprout up through that soil,
04:42green and healthy, reaching for the light.
04:46And now comes the one bit of tending that makes all the difference.
04:50And it is still no digging, only heaping.
04:53As the plants grow up, you heap more soil up around them.
04:58This is called hilling, and it is the key to a big crop.
05:02Every time the plants have put on a good bit of growth,
05:05you draw more soil, or compost, up around the stems,
05:10burying the lower part of them again,
05:12leaving just the top leaves showing.
05:14And you do this again as they grow taller.
05:17Now here is why the hilling matters so much,
05:21and it is two reasons.
05:23The first is your whole crop.
05:25Remember that the new potatoes form along the buried stem,
05:29so every time you heap more soil up the stem,
05:32you give the plant more buried stem to make potatoes along.
05:37And that means more potatoes.
05:40The taller you build it up, the bigger your harvest.
05:43That is the whole trick of a heavy crop.
05:46And it is why I told you to make the bed frame a good 10 inches deep,
05:50so you have room to keep heaping it up.
05:54And the second reason is a matter of safety, so heat it.
05:57A potato that pokes up and is left bare to the light turns green.
06:02And that green is a mildly poisonous stuff called solanine
06:06that you do not want to eat.
06:08So you must keep your potatoes covered, always,
06:12with soil or a good mulch.
06:14Never let them sit exposed to the light.
06:16And the hilling does just that,
06:19keeping them covered and safe as it builds your crop.
06:22Cover any that peek out.
06:25Green skin means keep it covered.
06:28And a badly greened potato you throw to the pigs, not the pot.
06:32And here is why that narrow bed, only a foot wide, is so clever.
06:37The reason I had you build it narrow.
06:40A bed only a foot across has air moving all through it
06:44and all around every plant.
06:46And good air moving through a potato patch
06:49is what keeps off the fungus troubles,
06:52the blight chief among them,
06:54that ruin a crop grown too thick and close.
06:58A wide, crowded block of potatoes
07:00sits still and damp in the middle,
07:02and the blight loves it.
07:05A narrow bed breathes and stays healthy.
07:08It is like the plant is all edge, all outside,
07:12where the air and the light are best.
07:14And there is no stagnant middle for the trouble to start.
07:18That narrow, airy bed gives you healthier plants
07:21and cleaner potatoes for no more work at all.
07:25And a narrow little bed like this has another mercy in it.
07:29It makes the watering go far,
07:31for the water stays in the bed where the roots are
07:34instead of running off the sides of a mound and away.
07:38So you use less water and waste none.
07:41And it makes the moving easy, which matters.
07:44For you ought to grow your potatoes in a fresh spot each year
07:48rather than the same ground,
07:49to keep the soil from tiring
07:51and the troubles from building up.
07:54With this light little frame,
07:56you just lift it up when the year is done,
07:59set it down in a new spot,
08:01lay your potatoes and cover them.
08:03The whole garden bed picks up and moves.
08:06Now let the plants grow, watering as they need it,
08:10and they will grow tall and lush,
08:12near as high as your knee and taller.
08:15And there comes a day when they flower,
08:18when the plants put out their little blossoms.
08:20And that flowering is a sign worth knowing.
08:23It means the first young new potatoes are ready down below,
08:27those little tender early potatoes that are such a treat.
08:31And you may reach gently in and take a few if you like.
08:35When the plants flower, you stop the hilling,
08:38for the crop is set.
08:40And then you let them be.
08:41And in time, the plants yellow and die back down.
08:45And that dying back is the sign that tells you
08:48the whole crop is grown and ready,
08:50the potatoes fully sized under there.
08:53And it is time to harvest.
08:54And the harvest is the lazy method's finest hour,
08:59for there is no digging here either,
09:01no forking through the ground and spearing your potatoes.
09:05Because you built the whole thing up on top of the soil,
09:09in loose soil and compost,
09:11you simply pull the plant up
09:13or push the loose soil aside with your hands.
09:16And there they are, your potatoes,
09:19lying loose in the soft soil
09:21where the light never touched them,
09:23clean and whole.
09:25And you gather them up like treasure with your bare hands.
09:28No spade, no speared potatoes,
09:31just reaching in and lifting them out.
09:34And the crop, done this way with good hilling,
09:37is a wonder.
09:39You will pull a good many potatoes off
09:41every single plant,
09:43often 15 or 20 from the one,
09:46and big ones.
09:47And it does not slack off.
09:49Plant after plant comes up loaded.
09:52From one small, narrow bed,
09:54you will fill crate after crate,
09:57enough to feed you through the winter.
09:59And when you have your harvest,
10:02you keep them the old way,
10:03which I have shown you before,
10:05in a cool, dark, dry place,
10:08out of the light,
10:09in crates or baskets,
10:11and they will hold you clear through the winter.
10:13A little burlap in the bottom of the crate,
10:17the potatoes in, out of the light,
10:19down in the cool cellar,
10:21and you eat your own potatoes till spring.
10:24Now think a moment about why so few folks
10:27grow their own potatoes anymore,
10:29when it is this easy and this cheap,
10:32and one bed feeds you half the winter.
10:35It is worse than a plot,
10:37for no one had to arrange it.
10:39There is a great deal of money
10:40in your buying a sack of potatoes
10:42every week the year round,
10:44and none at all in teaching you
10:47that a few seed potatoes
10:48laid on the ground and heaped with soil
10:51will give you a winter's worth
10:53for pennies and scarcely any labor.
10:56And the plain old knowing
10:58that a potato grows up and not down,
11:01that you need never dig at all,
11:03just stopped being handed down,
11:05because no one profits by the telling.
11:08And folks came to believe growing potatoes
11:11was a hard, back-breaking thing
11:13best left to farmers.
11:15My grandmother fed a family on potatoes
11:18she grew for almost nothing,
11:20and somewhere between her garden and ours,
11:23we were taught to carry them home
11:25in a plastic sack instead.
11:28The mending of it is a few seed potatoes
11:31and a little heaped soil.
11:32You lay your seed potatoes right on the ground
11:35in a narrow, sunny bed.
11:37You cover them and heap more soil up
11:40as they grow.
11:41You keep them covered from the light,
11:43and when the tops die back,
11:45you reach in and lift out
11:47crate after crate with your bare hands.
11:50No digging to plant,
11:52no digging to harvest,
11:53and the biggest crop you ever grew.
11:56That is how it comes home.
11:59One laid potato,
12:00one heaped hill at a time.
12:02The growing of your own food
12:05back in your own hands,
12:06and your back none the worse for it.
12:10So here is what I would ask of you.
12:12This spring, lay yourself a few seed potatoes
12:16the lazy way,
12:17even if you have but a tub on the porch
12:20or a foot of ground,
12:22and heap the soil up as they grow.
12:24And then come back at harvest
12:26and tell me in the comments
12:28how many you pulled off a plant,
12:30for I do dearly love to hear
12:33of a good crop pulled the easy way.
12:35And tell me too, while you are there,
12:38your county and the age of your house,
12:40for the growing seasons differ so,
12:43and the old places so often
12:45have the good ground
12:46and the cool cellars
12:48that make all this worth the doing.
12:50And I learn from every one of you
12:52how the growing goes where you live.
12:54And if your own mother or grandmother
12:57had a way with potatoes
12:58I have not named here,
13:00tell me that most of all.
13:02For that is how this goes.
13:04We share what we were given.
13:06I read every comment,
13:07and I learn from you
13:09the way the old women learned
13:10from one another across the fence line,
13:13one garden and one season at a time.
13:16Next time, I will show you
13:18how to keep your whole potato harvest
13:20through the winter,
13:20the curing and the cool dark storing
13:23that carries your own potatoes
13:25clear to spring
13:26without a soft or sprouted one in the crate.
13:29So all this easy growing
13:31is not lost in the keeping.
13:34There is a right and an old way
13:36to grow and to keep
13:37near everything the garden gives.
13:40And almost none of it
13:41is the hard work folks suppose.
13:44But this spring,
13:45you start with a few seed potatoes
13:47and a little soil.
13:49You lay them right on top
13:50of the ground in a narrow, sunny bed.
13:53You heap the soil up around them
13:55as they climb.
13:56You keep them always covered
13:58from the light.
13:58And when the tops die back,
14:01you reach in and gather your crop
14:03with your own two hands.
14:04And you will understand,
14:06as my grandmother did
14:07in her own garden,
14:09that the potato grows up
14:10and not down.
14:12That you were never meant
14:13to break your back digging at all.
14:15And that the biggest, easiest crop
14:18you ever grew
14:19was only ever a matter of knowing
14:21how the plant truly grows
14:23and letting it do the work.
14:26The garden tended the plain old way
14:28is the one that remembers
14:30how the old women fed a family
14:32through the winter
14:33on potatoes grown for pennies
14:35and gathered by hand.
14:37And that is a thing
14:38we are only just starting
14:40to remember.
14:40to remember.
14:40to remember.