Saturday 4 April 2009

my first early pototoes


Child-proof potato bed - I hope!

Today was such a lovely warm sunny day. I put the sides on another bed, took time to dig in some well-rotted horse manure. My plan was to make this bed half leeks and half potatoes, but I had so many seed potatoes that I stole a bit of the leek end and I also made three potato bags.
I planted swift variety and as the name implies I hope they shall be ready in no time.
I know my little one will be tempted to stamp and jump over the bed especially as he sees nothing growing, so I put some slates I liberated from a skip around the edges to discourage him.
As I had so many potatoes left I  turned three empty compost bags inside out, rolled down the sides and filled it with about 12"/30cm of multipurpose compost. Into each bag I put 3 seed potatoes. This is a technique I heard on Radio 4's gardeners question time last week so I'm very interested to see if it works.
I had some more garlic so I ran a line of them down the raspberry bed. I got the idea to do this from my file I have compiled of companion planting. 
Little one and I sowed some marigolds on Thursday and put them in the heated propagator and already many little seedlings are appearing! - photos to come.

2 comments:

allot of veg said...

Gardening with kids can be a challenge! Today my youngest dug up the asparagus we planted two weeks ago "to check it was growing". You've got to love them...

Your plot is looking great - like the plan too.

Carrie said...

Your potato bed looks utterly fab, hope those slates do the job!
Thankfully we just have Maggie (the wonder dog), who just sits there and supervises.