The sun was cracking the flags so to speak on Saturday morning. So we had a ride out to Kerry to visit a carboot sale and the others wanted retail therapy.
I found a carboot sale advertised on line on Collect Ireland.
It was at a Church of Ireland carpark in the town of Killorglin which is famed for the puck goat fair once a year.
Any road or any way. I bought some potato growing bags (6 for 5 Euros) and some plastic seed trays.
Have you ever grown potatoes or any other vegetables like carrots or parsnips in these bags complete with drainage holes?
You just fill them with a few inches of compost, homemade or bought) and place your chitted seed potatoes on them. Cover them up and add some more compost when their shoots appear.
You can grow them in old polystrene packaging like Tight Wad gardeners like your truly does. Or even in cardboard boxes. Did you ever see Muck and Magic years ago on Channel 4? When Bob (real name) Flowerdew grew potatoes in soil filled old tyres? It was a great programme and not for snobs and aimed at scruffy people like me. 😊
The potato growing bags are a perfect growing medium and you don't even need a garden to grow your own new spudatoes.
Filled with 3 inches of homemade compost and planted with Charlotte seed potatoes from Lidl and covered up with compost.
My father in law grew potatoes in heavy duty black bin bags. He would add more compost and roll up the sides until they were ready then tip the contents out to harvest them. Worked a treat.
ReplyDeleteYour father in law knew his onions or even potatoes JayCee. I often say on here you need to have a garden or allotment to grow your own vegetables. I once grew potatoes in a big plant pot on the second floor window sill of a flat we once lived in. They were very nice!
ReplyDeleteYup, bin bags, tyres (you stack em as the spud grows), 22 gallon oil drums open at each end, old buckets or big plastic trugs (with the bottom out) - and just plain old undug garden, cardboard on top to suppress weeds, then straw, and more straw, and lawn clippings etc. It becomes matted like an old rug and you shake it to make the spuds fall out.
ReplyDeleteGreat potatoes growing tips Tigger. I believe tyres contain Cadmium. Saying that I have two old big tractor tyres filled with soil for raised bed planters.
ReplyDeleteOh I say, you ruffian, Hermione and I only grow asparagus and pink fir apples. Actually we give instructions to Old Tom - our gardener - and he does as he is told or he would be out on his arse. Do you know, the old codger has never seen the sea!
ReplyDelete"Old Tom is the little man from the village. He should doff his cap more and pull his forelock. We must settle up at the end of the month."
DeleteI remember Bob Flowerdew, I quite fancied him at the time LOL
ReplyDeleteI think it was the long hair, I like men with long hair, LOL
Look forward to seeing you tip these pots out when the time comes and see how many you get.
Briony
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Muck and Magic was brilliant Briony. Bob was an hippy type of gardening presenter. A bit like Magpie instead of Blue Peter. Really laid back and very down to earth. No pun intended there.
ReplyDeleteAHH but you're a canny wee chap. I really do wish you lived down the road. You could fix up our garden and I could eat your fresh potatoes lol
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. I don't take myself too serious. The old lady gardener you know I would love to meet and we could do with your sunshine.
ReplyDeleteWe grow 2nd earlies in very large plastic plant pots, in our own compost. We've used the same pots for years, and the compost is free, so just the seed spuds. We even find potato plants growing in the compost heap from bits of peelings.
ReplyDeleteYou can never have enough homemade compost veg artist. You sound like you have a great system. I once knew an allotment holder who successfully grew his potatoes from the eyes of potato peelings. I have chopped seed potatoes in half to make them go further. But there is always a risk of rot so I buy cheap ones now from Lidl.
ReplyDelete