CHELAN — Stan Morse always wanted to grow potatoes in his backyard. But despite his passion for gardening, the Chelan lawyer and city councilman never had — until this year.

The loose dirt in a traditional country garden and his wheelchair just don’t get along, he says.

This spring, Morse read an article on urban gardening, complete with directions on how to build vertical beds.

He built five, and now expects to get more than 100 pounds of fresh, organic spuds from a 3-foot-by-15-foot plot in the upper yard of his Center Street home.

With that many potatoes, Morse said he’ll be donating at least half of them to the local food bank, or directly to families in need of food.

And, he’s hoping to convince others that — even in rural areas — urban gardening may be the wave of the future.

Morse said he started the beds as his own little experiment. And after one summer, he’s sold on it. He said renters or homeowners who want to use only a small part of their yard can benefit from the methods. Even people with plenty of room might consider vertical beds because they’re low maintenance, and use less water than one that takes up more room, he said.

Morse said he used no more water than he would have watering the same 3-foot by 15-foot plot of grass that was there before.

“I would love to have people in the valley see the possibilities of growing their own food in their own yards in a very contained way,” he said.

After building boxes with no tops or bottoms from salvaged two-by-sixes, Morse said the only maintenance is stacking on a new box and adding another layer of dirt every few weeks.

He added five layers to each vertical bed.

The beauty of growing potatoes this way, he said, is that every time you bury the upper part of the potato plant, the stalk sends out new roots. And each new root produces another new potato, so the higher you go, the more potatoes you get.

Of course, it’s limited by the growing season, and the nutrients potato plants need.

Morse found potatoes need lots of potassium, so he added bone meal to his own organic mix of compost and soil.

Digging in his vertical beds on Tuesday, Morse pulled up several small, thin-skinned new potatoes about the size of a robin’s egg from his top bed of Yukon golds. Meanwhile, the dirt in the bottom bed of his russet potato bed produced much larger, fist-sized spuds.

“As you get down deeper, they get larger. These are the bakers,” he said.

Since this summer’s crop was largely an experiment, Morse decided to take it one step further, and see if he can actually store some of his unharvested potatoes in the vertical beds through the winter, and dig up fresh potatoes next spring.

“I’ve got essentially a dirt root cellar,” he said. “I’m guessing it won’t freeze completely solid. It’s all part of the experiment, and if I lose a few potatoes, I will have learned that I can or cannot store them out here.”

Speaking of spring, Morse is already planning next year’s vertical beds.

“Next year, I want to grow red garnet yams,” he said.

He also has his own design for vertical beds to grow strawberries.

The projects may take time, but Morse doesn’t see it as work. “It’s fun. I practice law for a living, and it’s a wonderful catharsis to come out here and just dig in the dirt,” he said.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com

Building a vertical box for potatoes

1. Cover a 3-foot-by-3-foot area of yard with weed-proof material that will drain, such as barrier cloth

2. Build five or more frames with no top or bottom — using 2-by-6-inch lumber — each about 3 feet long, nailed or screwed at the corners.

3. Cut four lengths of 2-by-2-inch lumber, each at least 3 feet tall. Screw those onto the base frame on the inside of each corner. One end will be flush with the bottom of the frame. Take one frame and put it on top of the barrier cloth.

4. Place the base frame on the barrier cloth and fill box with a mixture of loose soil, composted material and about a half-cup of bone meal for potassium.

5. Plant seed potatoes or your choice, about one plant in every square foot, or nine seed potatoes, with the eye facing up.

6. Water the box regularly, keeping the soil moist but not wet. It should use about the same amount of water as the surrounding lawn.

7. When potato plants are 8 to 10 inches tall, place a small rock in each corner of the bottom frame to provide space between the boxes. Slide another frame over the 2-by-2 stringers and carefully fill with soil, being careful not to damage the plants.

8. Repeat step 7 every few weeks, when plants have grown another 8 to 10 inches above the soil.

9. Harvest new potatoes from the top box when the growing season is over, or cut back foliage and wait two weeks before harvesting to give the top potatoes a nice skin for storing.

Source: Stan Morse