7 May 2007 - Taking some of the hard work out of planting potatoes!
For years we, planted potatoes the traditional way - the hard way!
First digging a deep trench, filling it with manure, nestling each potato in its allocated position and then backfilling. OK - so my husband did the digging but I had the skilled job of spacing the seed potatoes at just the correct spacing!
Of course this worked well and we grew our potatoes each year without a thought of changing our habits.
Then one evening - a few years ago now - we were watching a gardening programme and the presenter was planting potatoes using just a trowel. This all seemed a bit too good to be true and so we decided to try out the method demonstrated. We found that it worked just as well as the labour intensive method. So seeing as each year we do plant rather a lot of potatoes this has been our tried and tested, preferred method ever since.
After rotivating the plot to be used, the potatoes are laid out in a line about 45 cm (18") apart. I (yes it is so easy that I am now the chief potato planter), just dig a hole as deep as I can manage using a trowel and pop a potato into each hole and cover it up! It is really quick too as the video clip shows.
Once the potatoes are through they are earthed up as necessary - that's where I pass the baton to my husband, after all I have done the important bit and I like to keep him involved.
I'll add to the film as this years potato harvest progresses - blight or drought allowing.
