All the spuds are now in the ground.  A deep groove or drill was pulled in the finely cultivated soil with a mattock, a light dressing of sulphate of potash (20g per square metre equivalent) and chicken manure pellets (100g per square metre equivalent) was dusted along the bottom of the drill and covered with a sweep of a three prong cultivator.  Tubers were placed over this fertile strip every 35-45cm depending on the size of tuber and number of sprouted eyes and covered with 8cm of soil.  Placing the fertiliser in the drill saves fertiliser and money and helps reduce weed problems.

Many allotment growers have taken to making huge ridges at planting time, but I prefer to leave the soil more or less flat and draw up the ridge over several weeks as the spuds grow killing weeds as I go and at some stage sprinkling general fertiliser over the entire plot so that this too is mixed into the ridge making a fertile finely divided environment for roots and tubers to form.  I don’t suppose it matters much which method is used as long as the tubers are not set too deep (>15cm)

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At last the weather has turned around enough to get cultivations finished.  Two days without rain, and with a light breeze, is sufficient in these lengthening days and increased warmth from the sun, to dry the soil enough to consider rotovating.

I rushed home from work, oiled, greased the machine, having to my shame put it away dirty, used old coat hangers to re-attach the bits that were hanging off (until I can get to the local dealership) and headed to the allotment. The potato ground was ‘milled’ into a fine mould with the manure thoroughly mixed in.  Now that the drills can be drawn and ridges easily made, the seed tubers sprouting in my garden shed can be planted

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Things are beginning to slip.  With rain every weekend I am not keeping up with the planting schedule.

On Saturday morning the weather was spring-like and I planted out my stock of bought-in lettuces and cabbages under a fleece tent with slug pellet protection (iron phosphate low toxicity ones naturally). Slugs are at plague level

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