‘Spuddy’ good advice Baytree Garden Centre in Weston

It’s all about potatoes in this week’s Out in the Garden column, by Mark Cox, of Baytree Garden Centre in Weston.

Evading recapture by Mr McKay has been at the forefront of all of our minds this week within the G-Team van.

Following last week’s lucky escape from our pursuers we’ve gone to ground near the McDonalds at Long Sutton.

T-Dog has been keeping our spirits up by belching the alphabet both forwards and backwards, sometimes with an accent?

Luckily for us, Billy has an auntie who lives nearby so in return for bed and board we’ve been helping get her crop of first early seed potatoes into the ground.

Now I would normally prepare the soil a good few months ahead of planting my seed potatoes.

I’d do this by digging in some good old fashioned well-rotted farmyard manure. However, it was evident after speaking with Susan, Billy’s auntie, that the soil had not been prepared. “No need to worry, I have a plan,” I said.

Like a finely oiled machine and coordinated with just a series of looks, nods and winks, Billy, T-Dog , X-Man and I had begun digging the soil over in readiness for her chitted potatoes.

Potatoes prefer a soil with a high potash content which well-rotted farm yard manure provides. To create these soil conditions now, I add Growmore,which contains a balanced blend of potash, nitrogen and phosphorus which won’t cause Susan’s potatoes to bolt.

T-Dog, who has a particular interest in weeds, was put in charge of removing any. To break up any large clumps of soil we just used the side of our digging forks. We turned the soil over to a depth of about 30cm or a foot.

It was hard, sweaty work and Susan, concerned for our well-being, insisted that we worked bare chested. On the hour every hour she would provide us with a cold can of Diet Coke which she said we had to drink in slow motion to avoid indigestion.

When we’d finished, Billy then sprinkled the Growmore over the soil surface. I told him to make a good handful of Growmore cover a square metre.

T-Dog then followed behind, raking the Growmore into the soil and at the same time smooth the soil over.

We used garden string tied from one end of the veg bed to the other to create straight lines which we could use as a guide when planting Susan’s seed potatoes.

Sue’s potatoes needed to be planted in two rows about 18 inches/50cm apart. To make sure there was room between each row, we spaced the rows out by a good two feet/60cm.

Ensuring that the potato tubers were planted with their shoots facing up, we planted them to a depth of about eight inches/20cm and covered them with soil.

When they had all been planted, T-Dog raked the soil flat and Billy give them a good watering in.

I told Susan that after a week or two there should be signs of growth visible on the surface of the soil – at this point she would need to pay a little bit of attention to the weather forecasts.

Frost can do real damage to young plants, so if frost is forecast make sure that you fleece or cloche them to protect them until the risk of frost has passed.

At the end of the day our bellies were full, and Susan had her seed potatoes in the ground. I love it when a plan comes together.