Tag: Grow Bags

Looking Forward to 2027’s Garden

I know I’ve been writing less gardening content as the year has gone on, which has been both intentional and unintentional. Unintentional in that my plan was always to maintain a steady flow of gardening posts all year, and intentional in that the garden has been a bit of a letdown this year. I’m going to go over some of the ways that 2026 has been a disappointing gardening year, but instead of focusing solely on the negative, I will wrap it up with all the ways we’re going to improve things for next year so that we’re looking forward to 2027.

Things That Went Wrong

Fencing

Starting with the things that have gone wrong is the fencing. Although it worked better than last year’s mesh fence, the construction/snow fencing we used this year couldn’t stand up to rabbit bites. Almost immediately, rabbits bit holes into the fencing that were just big enough for them to squeeze their bodies through. We tried to repair these holes, but the rabbits quickly adapted by chewing new holes. We gave up after a while.

Crop Rotation

Everyone always talks about the soil benefits of rotating crops on an annual basis. Rotating the various plants puts nutrients back into the soil that are pulled by other crops. I’m sure this happens, but for us, a number of the plants that we rotated from last year’s garden didn’t grow well. Our tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash didn’t grow in their new beds, yet we have healthy tomato and pumpkin plants in the beds they grew in last year. I understand the long-term importance of rotating crops, but it’s disappointing to see vegetables fail when they were so successful in a different location last year.

Squash

Our 2025 garden was incredible when it came to squash. We harvested a lot of yellow summer squash, green zucchinis, patty pans, and eggplant. This year, we harvested around a dozen total. If we had only a couple of plants, this number would be fine; however, we had more than 20 plants in the garden. This was very disappointing.

Grass/Weeds

Perhaps the biggest issue of all and what can be blamed for most things not going right is grass regrowing in the garden. We thought we had the problem licked before we started planting this year, but by mid-June, it was already back with a vengeance. And it wasn’t just grass. We have these really tall weeds that have popped up everywhere in the garden. They’re really easy to pull, thankfully, but there’s no stopping them once they start. The grass/weeds caused issues for our tomatoes and peppers, and it was a general nuisance given how easily it took over all areas of the garden.

Life Distractions

This category isn’t directly related to the garden, but the results of it led to me not devoting as much time or attention to the garden as I wanted to. Back in May, I had an unexpected and awful visit from my mom and stepdad. The encounter and everything that followed created big-time ripples for more than a month, and it distracted me. I wasn’t focused on weeding as much as I needed to be, didn’t fertilize with any consistency, and even cut corners with watering. Even though I didn’t have control over the situation that led to the distractions, I shouldn’t have let the distractions affect me the way they did.

Things That Went Right

Fencing

But not everything has been bad with our garden this year, and even our fence has had some positives. There are two key positives. One is that apart from rabbits, the fence did a great job of keeping animals out of the garden. As long as the fence stays upright and at its full height, other animals have been kept out. The other positive is that the fence stayed in good enough condition that we can reuse it next year. Last year’s fence got so torn up that we knew we’d need to replace it this year. Apart from a few small tears, the only damage to our fence is the holes rabbits chewed in it. It’s great to know that we don’t have to find an entirely new fence solution for next year’s garden.

Seed Starting and Transplanting

We had amazing success with starting seeds and transplanting the starts out into the garden. There were only 2 varieties that failed to germinate: Mexican Sweet Gherkin cucumbers and the Turk’s Turban winter squash. Everything else germinated well, either inside or in the garden, and did well once they were transplanted into the garden. These positives will be applied to next year’s garden to have continued success.

Sunflowers

We successfully grew sunflowers for the first time in our gardening life. Previous attempts ended in animals getting to them before the heads could develop. This year, though, they’ve grown exceptionally well. Our Mammoth sunflowers are between 6 and 10 feet tall with huge, 10-inch heads. We also have a short, Teddy Bear variety that has grown smaller but fuzzier heads. We grew a third variety, but neither of us can remember its name, but it’s a medium-height variety with smaller, traditionally shaped heads. We love being able to look out the windows and see the sunflowers standing tall and vibrant.

Corn & Beans

For the second straight year, we’ve had good success with corn. All of the varieties grew, even though some didn’t reach full height and failed to produce ears. Part of this had to do with the weeds that grew in that bed. But the ones that did reach full height grew decent-sized ears. The next step will be growing larger, fuller ears.

This year was the first time that we’ve had a great bean harvest. All of the varieties we grew did well, and we’ve even been able to pick shelling beans for the first time ever. We currently have a few Mason jars on the kitchen window sill that contain dry beans we grew.

Grow Bags

We grew our potatoes in grow bags this year and have done very well, with us already pulling potatoes from 2 of the bags. We’re certainly going to grow potatoes in them again next year. We’re also likely to grow other plants in them next year, such as peppers. We’ve had struggles with peppers in the garden this year, but the 4 plants we have in a bag are thriving.

What We’re Improving

So, we’re clearly not satisfied with where our garden is and have found areas of improvement for 2027. One area we’re focusing on is the fence. I’ve mentioned that we’re going to stick with the fence we’ve used this year. However, we’re going to improve it by buying 18-inch or 24-inch chicken wire fencing to attach to the bottom of the existing fence. This will provide an added layer of security against rabbits that are less likely to be able to chew through metal. It’s not exactly a foolproof plan, but it’s better than what we currently have.

We’re attempting to permanently address the grass and weed situation with tarps. We’ve had success killing small sections of grass in the garden with cardboard sheets, and so far, the grass hasn’t grown back in those areas. We’re doubling down on this idea by using large, 12’x20′ tarps to kill the grass in entire beds. We’ve started this process in our squash bed, which was one of the most affected by weeds this year. We haven’t checked its progress yet, but we’re confident that it could finally allow us to get ahead of the grass and weeds. If it works, we’re going to buy additional tarps for the rest of the beds.

We’re likely going back to where everything grew in 2025, with the only exception possibly being the corn and beans, which grew really well in their bed this year. Our tomatoes, melons, and pumpkins are all going back to their previous beds, and we’re going to work to make the squash bed from this year more nutrient-rich.

Even though it’s been a disappointing year for gardening, we still have plenty of reasons to look forward to 2027. We generally have an idea of what went wrong this year and feel confident that we can fix things. We’re going to appreciate and enjoy the fall and winter, but we’ll certainly be excited for next spring.

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Using Grow Bags for Our Potatoes

Potatoes, Gardening, Grow Bags

We’re growing potatoes again this year after not doing so since 2022. We attempted to grow them last year, but our seed potatoes arrived moldy and rotten. We still tried to plant them, but the wet spring we had killed them before they could grow. We wanted to attempt to grow them again this year, but we didn’t want to grow them in the ground, and we wanted to buy them from a different seed company.

In my post that went over the varieties of potatoes we bought, I mentioned the varieties we’re growing as well as the company we bought from, Urban Farmer. Those potatoes arrived in late April and were in perfect condition. I was surprised at how late they arrived and thought there was a chance they weren’t going to arrive. I eventually emailed the company, and they arrived within a few days of getting a response. Given the condition of the potatoes when they arrived, I’m a fan of not receiving them until late August. It was not nice having to worry if I was properly storing them for a month or so until it was time to transplant.

When we decided we were growing potatoes again this year, we knew that we weren’t going to grow them in the ground. Standing by helplessly as last year’s seed potatoes died in the ground was an awful feeling, and it wasn’t one we want to experience again. Even though the soil is better this year, which would provide a better growing environment for them, we can’t control the weather, and another wet spring could kill another year’s worth of potatoes. That brought us back to our old friend, the container garden.

In 2022, we grew our entire garden in containers, and by containers, I mean 5-gallon buckets and plastic totes. I wrote about our experience in this blog post, so I won’t rehash it here, but it was mostly successful, and I recommend it for anyone who’s limited on space or can’t have a traditional garden. Growing potatoes in them was a success. We grew three varieties in three separate totes and probably harvested between 15 and 20 pounds. For our first time growing potatoes, we were very happy with the results. This year, though, we aren’t growing our potatoes in containers but instead are using grow bags. Don’t get me wrong; the totes worked great, but it was too easy to crowd the potatoes and too heavy to move if we had to relocate them.

What Grow Bags Work Best?

There are numerous sizes of grow bags. We went with the 10-gallon ones, and they came from Amazon. These are the ones we’re using. I picked the 10-gallon bags because they are big enough to hold four pieces of a seed potato and have enough space to hill them as they grow. At the same time, they are small enough that it’ll be easy to move them when they’re full. Grow bags are also great because it’s really hard to overwater what’s growing in them. Made of mesh, they’re breathable and let excess water flow through.

Although there are some grow bags that have flaps on the side that provide easy access to the potatoes when they’re ready to be harvested, ours don’t have that. It is convenient, but I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s easy to pull the plants out to access the ready potatoes, and I prefer to harvest all of them from one bag.

We started with 10 bags, which were a birthday gift from Magz’s parents, but when we started to plant the seed potatoes, we knew we needed more, so we bought another 10-pack, which was the perfect amount for the four varieties we bought.

Planting in Grow Bags

Growing potatoes in bags couldn’t be simpler. We used a mushroom compost and top soil blend that we bought in bulk from our local Agway and put a layer on the bottom of each bag roughly five inches deep. After that, we applied an all-purpose 5-10-10 fertilizer and mixed it in. The seed potatoes went in next. Whether the seed potatoes need to be cut prior to planting seems to be personal preference, but I like to cut ours as long as each segment has an eye. Any potatoes that only have one eye go in whole. I try to cut the potatoes at least 24 hours in advance of planting them. This allows the potato’s flesh to harden over and develop a skin that protects it as it starts to grow. With the potatoes in the soil, I cover them with a few inches of soil and water them. It’s that simple.

Potatoes, Gardening, Grow Bags
Some of our potato grow bags

It’s important to use ID tags in the bags if you’re growing multiple varieties to know which type is growing in each bag. This helps to know when the potatoes are early, mid, or late-season varieties and to recognize when each is close to being ready for harvesting. After they’re planted, you just need to pay attention to when the potato plants start to grow. When you start to see the green of the plant breaking through the soil, you want to hill them up with more soil so that the plant is covered. With the bags, we’ll continue to add more soil until the bags are full. At that point, we’ll stop and wait until the plants die off, indicating that they can be harvested.

5 Reasons to Grow Potatoes in Bags

I feel that using grow bags takes some stress off growing potatoes. Granted, it is a bit more work than planting in the ground, but I think it takes a few years to improve soil to make it suitable for potato growing. Most of our yard is heavy with clay, which compacts and makes it tough to grow tuberous plants, such as carrots, beets, and potatoes. Over time, that should improve, but it’s not where it needs to be yet.

1.) Choosing the Perfect Soil

With grow bags, you can buy the perfect soil for potatoes. This blend we bought seems to be advantageous for potatoes, as it’s loose and has the necessary nutrients that help potatoes thrive.

2.) Water Management

They’re also great because you can’t overwater what’s growing in them. Excess moisture simply drains out. The flip side of this is that you need to water more often than you would in-ground plants, but it’s not a big hassle.

3.) Maneuverability

Another reason to use grow bags is that they’re easy to move. Any container is technically able to be relocated, but it becomes a pain once it reaches a certain size and weight. The 10-gallon bags are perfect for this because they never weigh so much that it’s hard to carry them, but they’re still heavy enough to not be blown by the wind.

4.) Sustainability

A major reason we wanted to use grow bags this year is that they’re sustainable. They may not be as sustainable as growing in the ground, but the bags we bought are durable and should last at least a few years. They’re made of a sewn fabric that has some flexibility and won’t rip under normal conditions. They’re much better than the plastic containers we used in the past, which would crack and break within a few months. And when we’re done using them in the fall, they’re easy to clean and store until next spring.

5.) They Can Be Decorative

Over time, our goal is to make our garden more aesthetically pleasing. Grow bags contribute to this. They look much better than the totes and buckets we previously used. The bags can be placed together in one location, simulating a garden bed, or can be placed in separate locations as space allows. We currently have ours on the hillside beside our house, and it gives this area of the yard some purpose and beauty.

To wrap up, if you’re on the fence about using grow bags, I would recommend it. Even if you have the space for an in-ground or raised-bed garden, grow bags can be the perfect complementary vessel. They’re affordable (our 10-pack cost $25.99), sustainable, and easy to move around. Have you ever used grow bags for your garden? If so, what has your experience been?

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