First Potatoes in the ground

After waiting so long for the weather to start getting warmer I decided to start planting out the first seed potatoes of 2013.

I have got plenty of potatoes chitting, most of which I had bought at a Potato Day back in Feb.

http://vegpatchkid.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/potato-day.html

These have been set out in egg boxes for some time now, but there are really only two varieties which are ready to be planted out, the Anya and the Maris Piper.

The plan was to try to grow these in two different ways.  Last year I tried to grow potatoes at home in potato bags, but their yield was disappointing to say the least. 

I also put some supermarket potatoes in the ground at the plot - the very first thing I ever grew there - but as they didn't go into the ground until late July, whuch was far too late, they never really had much of a chance to grow and develop before they got struck down by blight.

This year I want to experiment a little, growing potatoes both in a raised bed and also in buckets and/or potato bags to see which method is a) easiest, and b) provides the best harvest.

I had been given a gardening voucher last year, so I decided to get out to the local garden centre and get it spent.

I picked up a load of 20 litre buckets which had large drainage holes in the bottom to use for planting potatoes.

Anya and Maris Piper ready for planting

Even though it is probably a little early, I decided to get the seed potatoes which are fully chitted into the ground as I am starting to get a little frustrated with the weather right now.

I filled the bottom of six buckets with about six inches of compost, and laid the seed potatoes on top.  I put three Maris Piper into half of the buckets, and five Anya into the rest.

These were covered by another six inches of compost, and the tubs were set out inside one of my raised beds which only has a covering of manure at the moment.

The plan is to earth up the growing plants as and when necessary until the buckets are pretty much full, then let the plants grow on until the harvest is ready when I will empty the buckets into the bed to harvest the potatoes.

This has two advantages - the harvest will be contained within the bed, and the compost will also fill the bed for me, killing two birds with one stone.

\The remaining seed potatoes were planted into another bed which had been newly double-dug over and well manured.

I put in two rows of Maris Piper and two of Anya.

It will be interesting to see how both methods compare.

Early March on the Allotment - Video Update

At last it looks like the drainage problems I have been experiencing on the top of my allotment may have been solved.

The drainage channel that was dug in back in January has been successful in letting the surplus water in the centre clear away, so I have been able to get the first of the soft fruit beds put in.

As these beds are a lot narrower than the beds that I have already put in because otherwise I would have six inches of wood and only 18 inches of soil in between.

The site has recently had a delivery of old scaffolding boards which were perfect for what I wanted, and were very cheap at only 20p per foot, so the cost for both beds was only £15.

I still need to do something about the very top of my ground, next to the path, as when it rains any surplus water from the wildlife area above my plot comes over the path and straight onto my plot where the ground level is lower.  I can either raise my ground or dig a diverting trench along the path - not sure what will be best.

There are still a few over wintering veg on the plot, but with the weather we have had recently they will be OK in the ground for a few more weeks.

I hope that the weather starts to look and feel like spring soon - I have loads of seeds waiting to be sown, but there is no point right now.

Early February on the Allotment

It looks as though the drainage problems I have been having may be well on the way to being sorted out.

We had a digger on site at the end of January and the trench I had started was deepened and enlarged, and so far it looks as though it might work.

I made a quick video to show progress.