Gardening Tips ( Alf Bennett

Gardening is all about planning and looking ahead for the next few months.

Here is an idea which you may want to try as we hopefully start to come out of lockdown.

Growing Potatoes in Bags or Pots. During last year’s lockdown, I started to grow vegetables in pots and bags some of which I grew in the borders, at the back door and on the patio. One of the great successes was with some potatoes l found sprouting in the cupboard. I put these out in the light for a few days to strengthen the developing shoots and then planted them in plastic bags (see photo). Here I have used an old compost bag but an ordinary black sack or a large pot would work, as along as there is sufcient space for the potatoes to develop.. Cut drainage holes in the bottom of each bag to prevent water logging.

Whatever container you use put about 6 inches of soil/compost mix in the bottom. Add two sprouting potatoes on top, then cover with a further 6 inches of soil/compost. Place the bag/pot in a suitably sunny area and water well. After two or three weeks green shoots should be seen, add more soil/compost so that the potato shoots are just showing. As you can see you need a good depth of soil/compost. Then leave the shoots to grow so that the new potatoes can develop. Make sure that the soil/compost does not dry out. Eventually, owers will develop, when they die back you can start harvesting the potatoes. Ideally, you should use “seed potatoes” specially grown for the purpose. However, I found that using normal potatoes which had sprouted worked just as well. It also had the added advantage of only growing potatoes which I knew tasted really good.

I started in April and was harvesting potatoes in late August. I even planted some in July and left them until January 18th of this year before harvesting, they actually survived the frost and snow. See photo to show the yield, it was great to get new potatoes in January. All they needed was a quick wash and into the pan.

Alf Bennett, January 2021