Tales From The Plot
April – and things really start to kick off for me ……. April is potato month and potatoes are, and have been, the main staple of most people’s diet.
For a majority of growers potatoes are the most important crop of all, often the year is judged on how good the potato crop has been; plus there are so many varieties you can choose to grow and so many ways of growing them – I’m sure if you asked 20 different gardeners how they grow their potatoes you would probably get 20 different opinions on how it should be done!
The truth is all ways can work, I no longer believe that there is a wrong or right way just do what works for you but don’t fall into the trap of planting them too early unless you have the means of keeping the frost away. It’s not a race LOL.
The traditional way is to dig a trench, fill it with manure, put your seed potatoes in it 18 inches to two feet apart depending on variety, mound them up as they grow, and providing the weather conditions have been favourable and the various bugs and the most feared potato blight have left them alone you’re more than likely to have a good crop of potatoes. I choose to grow mine in 30L tubs mainly because the amount of potatoes I wish to grow would easily take up half of my allotment in the traditional way, I can also control the compost they are grown in which so far seems to have kept the bugs away – I make the majority of my compost I use which keeps the cost down. Once the tops die back I just empty a tub as I want them, this has always worked well …. until last year, by the time I came to empty the last half a dozen or so tubs the potatoes were all rotten because the weather had been excessively cold and wet. I think this year, once they’re finished growing, I’ll remove the tops and cover them with a tarpaulin to keep the worst of the weather off. Hopefully that will work. The traditional way is to harvest the lot when they are ready and keep them in hessian sacks. I just sadly haven’t got the room to do that.
Towards the end of this month I’ll hopefully get the sweetcorn in which is another very important crop for me. With luck if all has gone well by this month you’ll start to reap the effects of your labour with the first pickings of lettuce, beetroot and the first spring cabbage; always a treat. It should be the end of what gardeners have always referred to as the ‘hungry gap’.
The plot should now be working at full capacity with frost, hopefully, being a thing of the past. Brussel sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, celeriac, courgettes, outdoor cucumbers, french and runner beans, leeks, pumpkins, squashes, sweet corn, outdoor tomatoes that have been started off indoors should all now be in their final position. As with all young plants water in carefully and protect from birds with netting.
The soil should be warming up suddenly, that means the weeds will also grow prolifically, frustratingly often outpacing plants that I’m trying to nurture.
It does sadden me when you see new plot holders take on a plot with massive enthusiasm digging and tidying, getting the plot ready but then stay away for a few weeks and when they return I’ve witnessed the despair on their face because the plot has weeded over again – if they just visit twice a week and spend 20 minutes with a hoe that’s all it takes to keep things under control, little and often works best.
I find it very satisfying knowing that the plot is now full of plants that we’ve mostly grown from seed and if cared for will feed our family for the rest of the year and hopefully well into the next.
Richard Thorpe 15 B Syston Allotments
