Do the worm test when digging for potatoes!

First of all, today's super "The Quarter Acre Farm" illustration by Jesse "Nemo" Pruet.

Second –  It is time to plant your potatoes, people if you haven't done so yet!

Okay, maybe you haven't thought about planting potatoes and now that you have you feel like you are too late to order them.  No, no, no, you won't get out of it that easily.  Go to your favorite granola type, Co-op, organic grocery store, or even better, farmer's market and pick up some ORGANIC potatoes (pictured are fingerlings – little Russian Banana potatoes).  The conventional potatoes are likely sprayed with a chemical to inhibit sprouting, so don't even try it.  Put them in the sun a while to sprout, they will likely at this point do so immediately.  Don't eat them after they've been in the sun.  That story about green potatoes being poisonous is no joke…though it is likely not to kill you unless you eat a wildly huge amount, a stomach ache of some degree will be in order.

The potatoes I got were SOOOO ready to sprout, they did so before I unpacked them (which is likely why I got them for a dollar a bag).

Then comes the work.  Dig a trench.  Put the potatoes in.  I cover mine with some old goose straw (composted-y).  When the shoots poke through in a week or so, I'll sift dirt over the top, add more straw, more dirt as the potatoes grow.  I want the soil loose so the potatoes can expand easily.  (All this digging and layering, then the potatoes growing and breaking up the soil is going to further prepare my bed for the sweet potatoes I'll stick in after the reg. potatoes are harvested)

While you are doing all that digging, give your garden the worm test.  Dig a square foot of dirt from your garden (a foot by a foot and a foot down) and count how many earthworms are in that dirt.  What's an A+?  Hit 25 earthworms and give yourself a purple ribbon.  Substantially less than that?  You would benefit from improving your soil.

More on that later.  Happy digging!