this year I started a summer internship at a small scale farm that grows food for the county food bank. I've been learning a lot about growing and taking care of plants, which finally gave me the drive I needed to start my backyard garden! my actual yard still needs a lot of work so I'm growing everything in containers for now, but I'm planning on building a raised garden bed in autumn for use next year~

I was given a few starter potatoes in june which I planted in 5 gallon grow bags. I have no idea what varities they are, but they've been doing well and I think they'll be ready to harvest in september!

to grow potatos in grow bags, first I put in about 6 inches of soil and planted the tubers a couple inches deep. when the plants grew about 8 inches tall, I added more soil in a process known as "hilling up" to give the potatos more room to grow. I continued doing this every so often until the bags were full, and I made sure to give the plants plenty of water during periods of no rain. (I've basically been following this guide.)

9/14/24 Update! I harvested my potatos today!

To harvest potatos, first wait until the stems die back. I waited about two to three weeks after the stems died back to harvest, to give the potatoes time to firm up. Then I sifted through the soil for the potatos, dumping soil into a bucket as I went, until all the potatos were found and all the soil was set aside to add to my compost. I'm storing the potatos in a dark location as it's important that they aren't exposed to sunlight for too long. Now I need to look up some interesting potato recipes!

I also got to take home free tomato plants in june! the first one I got is a strawberry fields variety which has been growing well and produced a few tasty tomatoes~ the others I got were a genuwine variety and a few romas. those ones I got later so I haven't gotten to harvest any tomatoes from them yet, but they're growing!

I planted a couple of my tomato plants in 5 gallon grow bags and the rest in 2 gallon pots because I ran out of the grow bags. the ones in pots seem to be doing well, but tomatoes need deep soil so I expect those ones will produce smaller fruit. I give all the tomatoes thorough watering whenever I notice the soil is dry or the leaves are curling/wilting.

I used a thin metal stake to give the tomatoes support, which started leaning after a storm. I recommend using something sturdier like a tomato cage, or if you have a bunch of tomatoes in a row you can use the florida weave method.

the jalapeños I'm growing are the big poppa variety. I harvested some and used them in a burrito (along with my tomatoes) and they were pretty good! not as spicy as I would have liked but still tasty.

I'm growing them in a 2 gallon pot and they seem to be growing well, though I imagine a larger pot or garden bed would produce larger peppers. I water them regularly and haven't had issues with heat or drought.

I have a strawberry plant that my neighbor gave me last year. I've unfortunately been neglecting it a bit, but it's surviving so I hope that if I take better care of it I'll get to pick strawberries next may or june~

almanac.com - has a lot of gardening guides and calendars for things like frost dates and when to plant for your area.
USDA plants database - useful for looking up any kind of plant to find super specific info.
North Carolina extension gardener plant toolbox - useful for looking up growing info for many plants that grow in the eastern US.

I also recommend searching for what kind of native plants you can grow in your area!