Caption: Healthy Potato Foliage
Caption: The first opnes!
Caption: Feverfew
Waiting for first early potatoes is just sport in June but come the first week of July it gets serious. I know I need to wait for the flowers to finish and there’s no point turning up a fork full of empty soil but like many gardeners, I’m itching to see what’s there.
There’s something really satisfying about those first small beauties. Our Rocket and Charlotte potato plants are looking fantastically leafy and healthy in their beds and trugs, they’re positively burgeoning with promise. As much as we love eating Jersey Royals, they just whet the appetite for our own homegrown.
….So I’ve done what I know I shouldn’t and gone and had a root around with my hand in a trug of Rocket first earlies to see what’s what! I’m delighted that inspite of my impatience, our plants have plenty of potatoes and they’re growing nicely. Not quite big enough for a hearty meal but big enough for a first precious warm salad and a taste of what’s to come.
We use Lakeland Gold as a top dressing for our potatoes, placing a good inch or two on all the beds and the trugs to give an extra boost of nutrients (especially potash) and the slightly acidic conditions they prefer. These early potatoes are a tonic for the soul especially after all these weeks in lockdown. They’re on their way now and we will have plenty more in a week or two.
Also in the garden this week, the feverfew is looking particularly glorious at the moment!
Juliet