Potato planting time

Veronica flowering in the shed border

A lovely spring day, in the perfect potato planting window for us (Mar. 15-30), was a great opportunity to spend a day working in the garden. It was another furlough day, but one that was an excellent day to spend outdoors after a weekend of 'inside' learning.

I planted one large bed the conventional way, putting the cut seed potatoes (from Wood Prairie Farm) about 2-3 inches deep, with the sprouts pointing up (of course), and then mulching them with straw.

But I thought I'd try a straw bale set, too, so put down cardboard, covered it with freshly harvested compost from one of the bins, put the cut pieces on top of the compost, and covered them with a 4-5 inch layer of old straw.


I had bought fresh straw bales to use, but decided to use the old bales around the compost bins instead, after a bit of web research. I needed to fluff the straw up a bit, but it'll dry out rapidly in the current weather.