We had loads of slugs and snails in Yorkshire! They ate everything, complete omnivores. Not so many here, thank gods, not seen a snail but a few slugs which I think came in on bought plants. Must do better inspection. Some of my seed potatoes arrived today - Arran Pilot and Maris Piper. British Queen to follow. Good job I have a few spare egg boxes to chit them in!
The Potting Shed
- Thread starter Marigold
- Start date
Arran Pilot is a simply beautiful first early, the sort of taste you can never buy in a shop. I used t9 grow them in my allotment and I did a few in pots this summer, which did well.
Marigold said:
I was planning on one raised bed for each variety but may have some spares if I stick to the spacing rules so the left-overs can go into pots.
Margaid
Well-known member
dianefairhall said:
I invested in some potato growing pots which were quite successful and I hope will last many years. I don't eat a lot of potatoes but it was good to have my own potatoes, carrots and parsnips on Christmas Day. I hated any potato that wasn't roasted (or chipped) as a child but new potatoes from your own growing are something else. Unless the labelling was wrong on the seed potatoes, I didn't like the Arran Pilot but also the seed potatoes arrived very late - ordered as part of the "kit". I'll get them locally this year.
Hen-Gen
Well-known member
Ah, pink fir apples mashed with a lump of Lurpak (skins left on). Paradise.
Hen-Gen said:
I did think of pink fir apple but decided I had to be pragmatic. "We can't always get what we want"...
Hen-Gen
Well-known member
..... but if you try some time, you might just find, you get what you need.dianefairhall said:
From, in my opinion, the greatest Rolling Stones album.
It ought to be! Don't know why it's called sleet, a totally unnecessary word formation!
Margaid
Well-known member
dianefairhall said:
Sleet is a mix of snow and rain or partially melted snow, not snow and hail which sounds painful!
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Margaid said:
I rarely grow potatoes because I don't really like them, other than an occasional roast potato or chips. However, I did, one year, grow them quite successfully in those huge "bags for life" from Lidl, the sort of woven plastic ones. I just cut holes in the bag here and there for drainage.
That's pretty much what the potato sacks are, woven plastic, the ones they charge you a tenner for. No Lidl here so I'm guessing but it sounds about right.
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dianefairhall said:
Yes, I used the potato growing sacks once too. I didn't have enough, so used the Lidl bags as well. The only difference I could see was the colour. The real growing bags were brown, and the Lidl bags are white.
Margaid
Well-known member
The advantage of the special (expensive) pots I bought is that you lift out the inner pot which has big square cut outs in the side. Then you can pick the potatoes you can see, leaving the others to grow rather than lifting them all. You can do the same thing by putting a single use carrier bag with drainage holes inside a bucket or large flowerpot. Then you lift the bag out, carefully pull down the sides and access the potatoes. For me the potatoes pots worked well - if I'd done the plastic bag method I know the whole thing would have collapsed in a messy heap!
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Margaid said:
I just didn't want to spend the money on proper pots!!
Not when I eat so few potatoes. In the Summer, I did grow a few in a raised bed, but only because I had a few potatoes from the supermarket that had sprouted.Margaid
Well-known member
LadyA said:I just didn't want to spend the money on proper pots!!
I quite understand - I dithered about it for a long time but one of my reactions to stress is to spend money! A least they are useful, will hopefully last for several years and will give me more than enough potatoes for my needs. They're the small kits which take 3 tubers each, not the thing that's the size of a dustbin more suitable for families with voraciously hungry children!
MrsBiscuit
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One of the things I can no longer do is to bring seed potatoes to Portugal. So, possibly I will be eating an illegal crop this year (I often have rogue potatoes left in the soil which I don't spot and they sprout again, although not very well).
Going back to the OP from the Guardian, I can't really see why anybody would want to make their garden a lot of bother. I know I am a lazy gardener, but its not quite the same as wanting things to be low maintenance. I always used to garden furiously in March and Sept/Oct but the rest of the year I either wanted to lounge about in the garden enjoying it in the sun (!) or not go in it at all except to deal with the birds because of all the wet. I know I am lucky, now being almost retired, so I don't have time constraints, but even so I have always used my garden for quiet observation, which has nothing to do with how active I am in it, I just like to look at things, mostly doing their own thing.
Going back to the OP from the Guardian, I can't really see why anybody would want to make their garden a lot of bother. I know I am a lazy gardener, but its not quite the same as wanting things to be low maintenance. I always used to garden furiously in March and Sept/Oct but the rest of the year I either wanted to lounge about in the garden enjoying it in the sun (!) or not go in it at all except to deal with the birds because of all the wet. I know I am lucky, now being almost retired, so I don't have time constraints, but even so I have always used my garden for quiet observation, which has nothing to do with how active I am in it, I just like to look at things, mostly doing their own thing.
Yet another ‘freedom’ we have, after leaving the EU - our crazy Government is allowing the use of neonicotinoid sprays on crops, which kill bees and other pollinators. Please sign and share this.
https://www.change.org/p/uk-government-stop-the-uk-from-allowing-eu-banned-bee-killing-pesticide-to-be-reintroduced
https://www.change.org/p/uk-government-stop-the-uk-from-allowing-eu-banned-bee-killing-pesticide-to-be-reintroduced
Margaid
Well-known member
Marigold said:
As an ex-beekeeper I am horrified by this. I signed the petition from a FaceBook "share". PLEASE sign it and share with everyone you know. Bees are vital to the food chain whether you are omnivorous, vegetarian or vegan.
Margaid said:
I signed it the other day.
