Potatoes and garlic!

Garlic!

Again this year I was late putting the garlic in. But that doesn't seem to have bothered the garlic! Its already about 10cm high with growth! Great stuff! The garlic we grew last year was fantastic! Hope that we have the same luck this year!

As for the potatoes... Last year I just shoved each spud that was in the seed bag in - so I had about 8 plants. I realise after a bit more reading that you are supposed to cut off each 'eye' or tuber (so its about 30-50g piece) and then let them sprout to plant. An average seed potato bag of 1.5kg should give you about 25-30 plants! So; here goes nothing! Out came the knife to get them ready for sprouting about 3 weeks ago for a few weeks in the dark doldrums of my garage to get the 'eyes' growing.

Now they have shoots on them 3-5cm long, so it's time to get them out into the real world! I've got my fingers crossed that they are going to work as where I've cut them they are moulded and shrivelled - BUT they do have shoots on them that look healthy..... Guess time will tell!

 

I chose 2 varieties this year because of no real reason except the fact they both said 'heavy yielding' haha! I like to get my moneys worth! So, we have Agria, a boiling and baking spud; and Deseree which I've never heard of which is general purpose. Both of these are main crop varieties... so no spuds for Christmas this year!

If the instructions of cutting them into 30 plants is correct - they will take up most of an entire bed, and share it with my beans, kumara and yams.

• My goal for the potatoes this year is to grow enough to last till the next season!

Gardening is all about trial and error. So to get to self sufficiency with my veges I'm guessing it's going to take a few years to get the proportions right!

Digging the Trenches!