So we finally got around to doing a bit of gardening this weekend and getting those fingers green again! With having a quieter weekend it gave us time to get loads done, so much so that I have had to break up the blog posts into several parts. So today you have the joy of part one!

I have to confess that recently our poor raised bed has been feeling a little lonely and dejected and could really do with a bit of TLC. In fact it has been such a long time that eight legged squatters have taken residence, and I just know that Daisyboots will love this photo (blight-free tomato revenge)!

How To Grow Your Potatoes

First on the list was the random experiment, more out of curiosity than anything else, we decided that we would pull up the plant and see if anything had grown. It turns out that I really shouldn’t have held my breath so far as the potatoes were concerned, because we had a crop!

Granted the potatoes were neither big nor plentiful but the potential was certainly there. Although the potatoes did not resemble the baking potato that we had originally planted, we did end up with new potatoes of sorts, based purely on size and probably not on taste.

I think the plant just needed more width and depth to be completely successful, which isn’t surprising as we did use the smaller corner planter.

However Rich was very impressed with the crop as it was just an experiment and was quite adamant that we should eat them. All I could think of at the time was that I hoped he didn’t mean the ones with mould!

With increasing enthusiasm we nearly proceeded with potato experiment number two in the central area of the Cultivation Station, but unfortunately this was not to be as I already had plans for it with the infamous beans. We will have another go next year and try the larger planter.