Jamie's Plot (Seed Potatoes, part 2)

I was lucky enough to visit my friend, Jamie's beautiful allotment at the weekend, down at Prussia Cove, in Cornwall. I think he's possibly the luckiest gardener, ever! Take a look at the view from his plot- it's gorgeous! (finally, I've added the photo!)

Jamie's a little bit more experienced than I am at gardening and has quite a large space to fill. I haven't measured it and neither has he but it must be somewhere in the region of 50 square metres that he's got to play with.

The plot hasn't been used for several years and so needed a lot of tlc before Jamie could begin to start planting. Brambles had pretty much taken over the whole site, so firstly he had to get his strimmer out and clear it all. Next up, he had to roughly mark out where he was going to have each plot and dig over the ground. He did this all by hand, using a shovel and then a hoe. It took him a whole afternoon to do this but, having watched him work, I think it would probably have taken me about two weeks. He then covered the freshly-dug soil with compost.

So far, he's planted his potatoes as finally the ground has warmed up enough to do so without delaying their growth. He's planted 40 of Rocket Gardens' seed potatoes; a few of each of our varieties.

Like me, Jamie has planted early varieties of potatoes, which should harvest by May. Not only does this mean we should get to eat our delicious crops sooner, rather than later, it also means we should avoid the perils of potato blight, which I hear is one of the greatest risks to potato crops. Although early varieties are particularly susceptible to the disease, it doesn't usually hit until July so we should miss it.

For those of you planning later potato crops, here is some info' about potato blight, as I understand it:

• Potato blight is a fungus-like organism, which affects the green parts of the potato plant, causing them to fall apart.


• Wet, soggy leaves are one of the causes of potato blight so watering the plants can help spread the disease. It's best to water the soil around the plant, rather than all over the leaves.


• Growing several varieties, especially when laid out in alternative rows, can help reduce the spread of the disease.


• Warm, dry, sunny conditions are the best way to fend off blight- those of you who have experienced our British 'Summers' can see why we need to worry about the disease!


• If you do get blight, pull off the infected areas and discard them by throwing them away or burning them- don't use them for compost.

I got my information from http://www.potato.org.uk/, which also has a blight watch service, so you can keep an eye on prevalence of the disease in your area.

Raised Beds (part 1)

My sister wrote some lovely things about me last week but I thought it was best to introduce myself briefly in my own words. I like taking things apart and trying to put them back together again without too many bits left over. I like bumbling through the woods with my dog and mucking about in my boat on the Helford River. I think that it should only rain at night and snow is brilliant for short periods. I love what I do at Rocket Gardens and now that I’m settled at the farm, it’s time to start a veg patch.

I have an area just outside the office that’s 14 metres by 18 metres that I’d like to fill with 6 raised beds. I’m going to try and do everything quickly and on the cheap to prove that gardening doesn’t have to be expensive or all-consuming. I want to create a garden for all the rocket staff to use and enjoy that looks nice and is easy to maintain.

Over the weekend I went down to see a friendly chap at a local sawmill and picked up a load of waste timber to build my beds from. This is a much cheaper option than using railway sleepers or wood bought from the builders merchants, not only that it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to be using something that no-one else wants.

During the coming week I’ll draw up a garden plan, mark out the beds and I’ll post about it next week so you can see how I got on.

Cheers and gone,

Rob