Space for Potatoes

by Matt

Due to the usual designated area for my vegetables being otherwise engaged at the moment with bulbs for display and cut flowers, my potatoes are having to wait just a bit longer than usual to be planted. It’s not ideal, but more time to chit is never a bad thing.

It’s been a really fantastic Spring for the cutting beds this year and the tulips and species daffodils have created a staggering view from the front door. In about 2 weeks time the best will be long over and I’ll begin removing the rows one by one. In the mean time however, as well as the those I’ve forced in the greenhouse in bags (for super-early cropping), I’m planting potatoes into one of the compost bins by the shed.

So often with gardening the best results come unexpectedly and unplanned, as is so often commented. When digging over my compost bins last Autumn I had to frequently stop to remove enormous, perfectly formed potato tubers. These can only have sprung from the previous year’s waste crop, which would have been sprouting unnoticed early in the Spring, along with those intentionally cultivated in the vegetable beds. So, given their success last year and my need for space being greater than my need for well-rotted compost, I spent this morning going about planting up the end compost bin, making use of it’s own finished-product growing media. Tomorrow I think I’ll broadcast some early salads on top, just to make full use of the space, and I’ll just have to keep it weeded in the mean time.