Gardening 101

1. Source and 'Chit' Your Potatoes - Do this 2-4 weeks before planting

   Avoid planting potatoes from the grocery store, as they are often treated with chemicals to prevent sprouting. Instead, buy certified "seed potatoes" from a garden center. Place them in an egg carton in a cool, bright room to encourage them to sprout short, stubby shoots (a process called "chitting").

2. Prepare Your Trench

   Potatoes need loose, well-draining soil

   Pick a spot in your garden that gets at least 6 hours of full sun a day. Dig a trench about 6 to 8 inches deep. If your soil is heavy clay, mix in plenty of compost so the growing tubers have soft earth to expand into.

3. Plant the Potatoes

   Place your seed potatoes in the bottom of the trench with the sprouts pointing up, spacing them about 12 inches apart. Cover them with just 3 to 4 inches of soil for now, and water the trench well.

4. Hill the Plants

   Crucial for preventing green, bitter potatoes

   As the green leafy plants grow to about 8 inches tall, gently mound more soil (or straw) around the base of the stems, burying the lower half of the plant. Repeat this every few weeks as the plant grows taller. This forces the plant to grow more potatoes along the buried stem and keeps the developing tubers in the dark (sunlight turns potatoes green and toxic).

5. The Harvest

   Once the plants flower, you can carefully reach into the soil and sneak a few small "new potatoes" to eat right away. For a full storage harvest, wait until the green tops completely die back and turn brown in late summer. Leave the potatoes in the ground for two more weeks to cure and toughen their skins, then gently dig them up with a garden fork.

def function(X):
  Y = X
return Y # Expected to return the same value as the input

• Bullet

HIghlight

What is the sidebar here?

hehe