I’ve had great success so far, but this is my first year trying it. I really like the approach suggested by Greg at Maritime Gardening.

Here’s what I did:

1. About 8 years ago, I removed a privet hedge along the east chain-link fence in my yard. I put down landscape fabric (weed barrier) on the horrible clay soil, and about 4 inches of shredded wood from a pine tree that had been removed the year before. I intended to plant roses there, but I picked poor varieties and they didn’t survive.
2. Last spring, about a month before “last frost”, I scraped aside the mulch in a 10 section of the bed, tore out the landscape fabric, and dumped the mulch back down. The mulch was partially composted after sitting their for so long, but still definitely mulch, not soil.
3. In late May (I’m in northern Colorado), I planted 6 russet and 6 red pontiac seed potatoes in that bed. I did not dig at all. For each potato, I scraped aside the mulch, plopped the potato on the (packed clay) soil, and put the mulch back over the top. I added about 4 inches of straw on top of that.
4. About 2 weeks later, the potato plants had emerged and were looking good. I added another 4 inches of straw around the plants to make sure sunlight didn’t reach any potatoes. By the middle of July, the plants were lush and healthy, and beginning to bloom.
5. By late July, I had severe insect damage on the plants, but that part of the yard is a haven for grasshoppers, and I did nothing to prevent them. Next year, I’ll setup a simple “hoop tent” over them to keep out the worst of the insects.
6. On the last day of July, I harvested them. I got almost 10 lb of red pontiacs and about 5 lb of russets. I decided I didn’t really care about the lesser yield from the russets since I’d rather grow the thin skinned varieties in the future anyway.
7. Note that, as countless YouTube videos have shown, the process of harvesting these was unbelievably easy. It took about 10 minutes. All I had to do was scrape aside the straw and wood mulch, and there they were.

So, some observations:

1. After the potatoes were done, the soil underneath definitely looked healthier than before.
2. I’ve already prepped that bed for next year by adding about a foot of last year’s hay (from a local feed store). I also added about 20lb of alfalfa pellets under the hay (also from the feed store) to supplement the nitrogen.
3. I’ll plant potatoes in that same spot next year, mostly due to its great location for sunlight. I’m not worried about blight - I saw no signs of it on last year’s potatoes, and I try to buy blight-resistant seed potatoes.
4. I’ve also prepped two more sections of that same long bed (along the fence). I prepped them the same way and hope to grow beans and swash there next year.

And some photos:

May 20 (above)

June 2 (above)

June 26 (above)