After much hard work we got our potatoes planted out on Sunday. Folklore has it that they should be in the ground before St. Patrick’s day (17th March) and we only missed this by a day – which I think is pretty good going for us!
The plot they are in was all grass a week before so in two Sundays the kids, Debbie and I have dug up all of the turf, turned the ground over – fairly heavy clay – and picked out loads of stones (and the odd rock).
The potatoes had been chitting for a couple of weeks and had a good few shoots so they were hopefully perfect for planting out.
To plant out, we dug out rows about 4 – 6 inches deep and around a foot or so apart. In the rows we put a bit of general purpose compost and then placed the potatoes, with the shoots pointing upwards, again about a foot or so apart. Then we put a bit more compost in and then covered over with the soil I had dug out. The kids loved helping with all of this! The kids counted as we planted and we put 54 seed potatoes in so it will be interesting to see how many plants we get.
So, now we wait for the shoots to start poking through so we can earth them up – more about that later if/when it happens! Be sure to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to see how we get on.