Potatoes In

The seed potatoes we ordered at the end of January have been cheerfully chitting in the study since early March, and with the nice weather and suitable shoots on them all, it was time to plant them. We dug six-inch trenches in the big C-shaped vegetable bed, put the potatoes in, and covered them back over with an inch or so of soil. As the shoots begin to show, I'll continue covering them over, and then—when they're about six inches clear of ground level, I shall mound the soil up over them again, to keep the tubers from going green.

Potatoes are fairly frost-resistant: the shoots get a check if they're frosted, but recover. Nonetheless, I'll have to keep on top of covering them up as they grow, to protect them. The fleece cage isn't back on after the high winds last week, but once it is, that will obviously help.

We only put out six of the varieties, leaving the Orla and Vivaldi in the study to continue chitting: they're being kept for a second crop of new potatoes. The six that went in were:

• 'Rocket': a very early First Early, which also yields well.
• 'Lady Christl': a fast First Early, but can be left in the ground to crop as a heavier Second Early.
• 'Juliette': can be lifted as a Second Early, but may be left in the ground to bulk out further before cropping as an early Maincrop.
• 'Nicola': an early Maincrop. This replaced the Belle de Fontenay we'd ordered, as it ran out, sadly.
• 'Druid': a late, heavy-yielding Maincrop which stores well.
• 'Golden Wonder': a late, versatile Maincrop which improves on storage.

We then dashed out before the shops closed, and picked up some miscellaneous hardware (nails, screws, and staples) that I'm running low on, and half a dozen new hanging baskets. The four we brought with us when we moved are slowly rotting and falling apart, and have natural fibre hanging ropes (which keep coming apart, testing my splicing skills). The new ones—while I'm sure they'll eventually decay—have a hidden metal frame, and metal chains, so I hope they'll be less laborious to maintain. They're also rather larger (14"), so will make more of an impact on this house's larger façade.