I still think growing potatoes in a raised bed is a semi ludicrous idea as the earthing up is bothersome due to a simple lack of space. But I do it anyway, Why ? These are the appropriately named " Homeguard " growing reasonably well here, I hope to be eating baby potatoes from these quite soon.
Here we have " Duke of york " and " British queens ", both are doing quite well. You may have noticed the soil difference, this is because it's in a patch of ground borrowed in the uncles garden. I much prefer this method of growing the spud but you need plenty of room, something the uncle has an abundance of ! He made the land available on the condition that I would plant his spuds for him, a small price to pay.
By his reckoning there has been a garden here for nearly two hundred years ! Near perfect conditions prevail here, black crumbly soil, south facing on a gentle slope with shelter all round. Things get planted here about a month before anywhere else. Anyway that's the earlies taken care of, the maincrop you can see on the right of the photo should be ready for earthing up sometime next week. More then......
Hi Foxylock
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for passing by and for your very kind comment. Do come again!
I'm somewhat envious of your enormous piece of land and wish I had such an uncle. Lovely blossom pics too, on a lovely blog. I'll visit often.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you scarlett for the kind words.
ReplyDeleteWow that is some spud sowing, are you going to earth them all up yourself? Do they suffer much blight in your neck of the country?
ReplyDeleteWell Peggy
ReplyDeleteIf a fraction of them survive we will eat well for the rest of the year. I earthed all the earlies in the uncles garden in an hour and a half, there's more maincrop but maybe two and a half hours of shovel work should do it. I spray against blight because it's becoming more of a threat especialy with the queens.
Very healthy looking stalks! I can almost taste the new potatoes with a little butter, salt, and parsley. When do you hope to harvest some? I wish I could grow potatoes but they really don't like all the shade in my garden.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda and welcome I am hoping to harvest around mid June but I always end up stealing some baby potatoes around the start of the month. I just can't help myself !!
ReplyDelete