Gardening 101-Grow 100 lbs. of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet

I always have enjoyed working out in the yard. I like to landscape, mow, trim bushes, and to plant and grow flowers. The flowers have always turned out pretty well and with not a lot of effort. It's amazing what a little color and curb appeal can do for a home as well. Along this same line, I have often thought about growing a few vegetables. A small garden, nothing too big.Being raised in the city, gardens are not as common.However, my mom had done one before. Also, when I was a child my next door neighbors--considerably older(The Cannon's)-- They had a garden that I remember my brother and I taking an interest in. Anyway last year I decided to buy a few cucumber plants from the local Lowes. I planted them in a flower bed, in a corner kind of by themselves. They seemed to start out really well. The vines seemed to take off within a matter of weeks. I gave them some Miracle Grow and plenty of water. After a while, you could see little flowers emerge. My girlfriend's mom told me that when you see them that the cucumbers should be coming next. Shortly thereafter, I did see a couple of cucumbers growing. It was exciting! I mean you just put a few plants in the dirt and,voila, up comes something you grew and could eat. It never happened though because for some reason they started to wilt and to die off. I think we got a lot of rain at one point. Could that be why, too much water?? Either way, that was my first try at gardening and it didn't work out too well. Does anybody have any tips on what a novice could grow?

Well, I haven't given completely up on the idea of growing something. Now times are desperate and it would be great to save a few more dollars and to get more healthy choices in our kitchen. Anyway, that brings me to why I wrote about this topic. Yesterday, I was surfing the Internet and ran across LifeHacker's website. The site had a great post on how to grow potatoes. It seems easy for a novice like me, and something that I might try.


Excerpt:
Potatoes seem like the kind of plant you'd need a substantial garden for—the kind your grandparents had, right? Actually, tubers aren't all that picky, and you can harvest a whole lot from almost any yard. Check out the rest of the story here. This was submitted to the site by a Jason Fitzpatrick. However, he referenced the info from another source, The Seattle Times, here.