Plot 36 - Woohoo Spuds!

I dug up my first ever potatoes today, half of the Charlottes and there was enough for two family meals, so happy. Here they are with some mint I picked off the Lottie to cook them with. Looking forward to dinner tonight, they will be the freshest spuds I've ever eaten.

Have a lovely day, Jo x

Plot 36 - planting potatoes

This week has been a good and productive time down the lottie, I widened the raspberry bed and put in 5 new canes. The local council were digging up some flower beds in our local park and I managed to mump a few very pretty tulip bulbs and  spring annuals that were destined for composting for kiddie corner. On Saturday My lovely OH helped me put in 2 more short paths across the middle of the plot so that this coming week I can concentrate on digging over enough ground to get my brassicas in, only a dozen or so plants so doable I think....fingers crossed for the weather. 

Today's lottie post is all about potatoes though, top left is a picture of the first leaves from my early potato bed (Charlottes). It's the first time I've ever seen potato leaves, pretty exciting. On the right is a picture of one of the Sarpo Mira seed potatoes that I have had chitting on my kitchen side for the past few weeks.  I kind of wish I had got a close up shot if these sprouts before they went in to the ground as they put me in mind of Romanesque Broccoli (Roman Cauliflower).

I dug three trenches about 6 inches deep and placed generous handfuls of fresh cut Comfrey in the bottom. I then cowered the Comfrey cuttings with a little multipurpose compost and placed my seed potatoes on top about 9 or 10 inches apart. I then covered the potatoes with loose soil and raked the whole bed level. I'll earth up the plants periodically over the coming weeks to help keep any newly formed tubers covered from daylight.

Hopefully the quick rotting and nutrient rich Comfrey plants will give these seed potatoes a really great start.


Have a lovely week, Jolene xx

Plot 36 - first bit of planting.

Plot 36 is going to get a whole lot messier and disorganised before I get my head around how I really want the layout and beds to work. I got a letter through from the council saying the perimeter fence is going to be replaced in the next 4 to 6 weeks and that everything needs to be moved at least a meter away from the fence before then. I've been down there today and realised just how much accumulated junk had built up on the plot over the last 2 years before I took it on. Sorting through it all will be a big job, one that I have been turning a blind eye to in favour of digging my first bed. Being forced to look at the junk problem sooner rather than later comes with a silver lining as the large area currently wasted under a pile of misc stuffs will become the permanent space for Ruby's flower garden. I'll get started with that job in earnest tomorrow.

This morning I put my first plants in the ground which was really lovely. My Mum sent me some cuttings from the Blackcurrant plants from her garden. She packed them really well and posted them to me, when they arrived they looked really healthy and had a few roots on them already. I left them in water in a vase on my kitchen window sill and the roots grew in really well on all 5 cuttings.

Here are my baby Blackcurrant plants in their new home next to the Comfrey bed. I'm really not sure if there will be any fruit from them this summer. I also planted 10 Charlotte seed potatoes today, the ground was finally dry enough to pop them in with plenty of lovely compost to give them a good start. I have had these chitting in my kitchen for the past 4 weeks. Here is a useful little garden organic fact sheet on chitting potatos. All being well these Charlottes will be ready to harvest in July or early August.

Jolene x