More Planting Potatoes

Another glorious summer’s day.. hang on it’s April! Down to the plot where more potatoes were to be planted.

Planting Potatoes

Just like yesterday, I used the Mantis to do the work of drawing the rows for me and breaking the soil up into a fine crumbed tilth. First a couple of rows of Anya went in. They’re a lovely potato just boiled and do have an unusual taste. Last year we planted too many and this time I’ve kept the quantity down. Even if you like a variety, resist the urge to go mad and plant too much.

Next a couple of rows of Valor, which is a maincrop. It has some blight resistance and makes a nice sized potato ideal for chipping and roasting. In case you’re wondering what to grow next year, I’ve got some charts showing the best types of potatoes for various uses, mashing, salads, roasting, chipping and baking on the site: Potato Varieties

Allotment Photos

We’ve got a new camera,  an Aldi special. It’s amazingly dinky and takes surprisingly good photos. My second hand Olympus has a better lens but it’s quite bulky and, being older, slower. Because it’s bulky I keep ‘forgetting’ to take it with me but no excuse with the new one. I can see the quality isn’t as good on zoom shots but it’s good for normal snaps.

My comfrey is popping up nicely, that will be ready for a cut soon and the garlic and shallots seem to be doing well, especially considering how late I was with them.

I then took a little wander around the site and snapped a few of the other plots. It’s getting to be a very posh site now. I think our Larry is trying for a site prize so I’d best get on with tidying up plot 29 now which still looks a state. Too embarrassed to photograph that!

You can see all the photos on the site here : allotment photographs

Recycling From the Garden

Val turned up in the car, fully laden with various pots of spent compost and so forth. There’s not much nutrition left in them but they will improve the soil quality on the plot. Every little helps me grow more and shop less at the supermarket!

Chicken Killing

We’re going to be away for the weekend, celebrating my birthday (54!) and my daughter’s birthday by going on a course for killing and dressing chickens in Sheffield. Even if you’re not raising them for meat, I think it’s valuable to know how to humanely dispatch an injured bird.

Of course there’s the axe or cleaver method or the plastic bag over the head method but what if you don’t have those to hand?

A friend of ours decided to raise some meat birds and when the evil day arrived didn’t know what to do. So he decided to shoot the chicken with his shotgun. Now I don’t know if the poor creature was offered a last cigarette or a blindfold but the end result was bits of chicken spread around the garden. Not the recommended method. He now asks his elderly neighbour.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary

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