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.

Potato Day

On Sunday I attended my first ever potato day.

A potato day is where you can purchase a wide range of seed potatoes (and other plants).  The main difference to purchasing here rather than at a garden centre or from an online supplier is that you have the option of purchasing as few or as many of each variety as you want.  There can also be quite a large number of heritage and heirloom varieties available

It was held at the Hulme Community Garden Centre in Manchester which was in itself a lovely place to be - lots of plants for sale, plenty of willow and hazel poles (some of which I may be going back for).

Hulme Community Garden Centre

I wanted to get a few more varieties to try out on the plot.

I already have maincrop (Anya), first early (Pentland Javelin) and second early (Maris Piper) so I wanted at least one more of each type.

My wife had requested that I try to grow some blue potatoes, so the first pack I looked at was Salad Blue, a heritage maincrop.  These were on sale for £0.25 per tuber, or 1kg for £2.20.  I bought a kilo containing 22 tubers.

Next I got a kilo of Cassablanca first early and also a kilo of Bambino second early for £1.50 each.  These are both new-type potatoes so there were about thirty tubers of each.

All I need now is about six more egg trays and enough space in the conservatory to get them all chitting in time to be planted out at the start of the potato growing season in March

Moving on at last

At long last it looks like the drainage problems on the top half of my plot might be starting to clear.

The drainage channel has been dug slightly deeper to allow any surplus water to drain away, and the land on either side is noticeably better.

There is still standing water up near the top path, and I have still got to dig a couple of side trenches to try and clear this but for now the improvement there is has allowed me to start to create the paths that will border my fruit and herb area.

Bark on top of Weed fabric

A few flags on top

The path was made of several inches of bark chippings on top of weed suppressing fabric.  In some places the bark had to be almost six inches thick as the ground underneath was still so soggy that I was still sinking into the mud even through the bark to start with.

Flags were then laid on top of the bark and stamped down to level.

Before

I brought several bags of stone from home to fill the drainage trench, but it was only enough to fill just about half of it's length, so I decided to start at the edge of the plot and move inwards which would allow me to start to make the path on that side also.

I filled the trench to within an inch or two of the surface and then used part of the spoil heap left by the digger to completely fill it in.

This spoil heap needed moving anyway as it was in the way - I need to move the rhubarb bed back towards the path about four feet.

The trench part filled

I didn't have enough spare flags to complete the pathway, but I discovered another problem whilst I was working there

The rhubarb bed had been created in line with the pond which in turn had been made in line with the paths that border the plot, but when I made some rough measurements it seems that the end of the bed closest to me in the picture is about five inches closer to the existing beds to the left of the picture than the far end.

I did the measuring late in the day when I was very tired, so it is entirely possible that I have got it wrong.  I was sure that we did all the measurements when we first set the bed up.

I will have to re-measure next weekend when I am fresh and slightly more awake than I was on Sunday.



Rhubarb crown #1



If it turns out that the beds are misaligned it won't be a major problem as one of the beds I was planning to run between the two paths is for the fruit bushes, so once they have grown a bit the edges of the beds will be hidden a bit so it shouldn't be too noticeable.



Rhubarb crown #2



I have enlisted the help of son Will next weekend to get the rhubarb bed moved to it's correct position. 

Once that has been done I am hoping that I will be able to transplant the rhubarb both from home and also from bed 2. 

I might even be able to bring in Stepdad Ken's rhubarb from his house too.

The top half of my plot as it was on Sunday when I finished.