And just three weeks later...

My potatoes in cardboard boxes are developing perfectly and are now fully earthed-up.

I have run out of earthing-up material so I had to mix what little earth I could find with half-rotted vegetable matter, grass and shredded cardboard and paper.

These potatoes seem to be developing better than the potatoes that I planted in the standard way, which can be seen in the next photo.

The potatoes that have been planted into the earth in rows have bolted somewhat. This is probably due to competition for light. The only difference with previous years is that I have been able to earth-up higher with the addition of cardboard walls. We shall see if that has made any difference at harvest time.

Using cardboard walls means that I can concentrate earthing-up around the plant stems and the material used to earth-up does not slide away when it rains.

Elsewhere we can see two tubs of salad greens and lolla rossa that are now ready to be eaten. They are cut and come again so they will be producing all summer.

Behind we see onions which are unfortunately competing with potato peelings that were dumped there in the winter but never rotted away. Every morning I have to dig around each onion to remove potato plants that are now growing. Lesson learned for next year.

 A few pots of Gem and Webbs Wonderful lettuce. These are thinnings from the large tubs. I like to grow lettuce in pots and tubs, which leaves the earth for potatoes, onions and composting.

Large tubs with beetroot and lettuce. Beetroot is very easy to grow, likes being in tubs and is easily transplantable, if you get too many and need to thin out. Just water the plants to be thinned, ease them out, replant and water again.

Finally, my tub of shallots and next to them my army of slug chasers, a pool of newts. I have had no problems with slugs or snails this year. A few weeks ago I went into the garden, early in the morning, found all the snails and threw them into the next garden with just enough force that they hit the fence, cracked open and made a nice meal for the Blackbirds. Slugs have been few and far between, thanks to the newts.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

There's been a male blackbird singing his guts out on my roof top for the past two months. No doubt looking for a mate. However, he isn't getting any.

I can understand his plight but then I am now officially a decrepid old man and should accept my fate.

I can see where the blackbird is going wrong, his song list is very old fashioned. And, to be quite frank, his song sounds a little gay when in flight. He comes across as a bit of a whoopsy. Faults that aren't going to pick up any birds.

A few weeks ago there was another male a few roof tops away whose repetoir included mobile phone impersonations. He scored and is now at it in a recently built nest.

I am sure there are lots of morals to be learned from this story.

Note - Irate liberals, socialists and the bbc should address all complaints about this post to...

13 WhoGivesAShit Lane
GetALife
Oblivion
UR1 8U2

A visit to the doctor

One has "Work Related" Arthritis. If you know me then like myself you would have been trying desperately not to laugh when the doctor diagnosed it to me this morning.

Obviously, this arthritis is not related to the couple of years I worked in The City. More likely the arthritis is related to all the digging, hammering and other tool related work that I have done since retiring from corporate life.

As you strike or collide with a less than forgiving object your bones are thrust together and the cartilidge gradually wears away. My hands and elbows now have a constant baseline level of pain.

The doctor suggested Glucosamine HCL but from what I read that could well be a placebo and I am not going to fork out £50 plus per year on a placebo.

Nothing is going to stop my vegetable gardening, DIY-ing and general bodging so I will just have to live with it until it is time to unlive with it.

Some idle thoughts

The more I watch Rollerball (the 1975 version, not the subverted corporate remake) the more I feel that is the way the world is becoming. The end of democracy, the rise of the corporate states. The summation of the triumvirate of evil; corporations, banks and politicians. All are one and set against the people.

A few idle sentences that were part of an email I sent to a friend, enslaved inside a corporate structure.

"You are not a person, you are a resource number."

"The corporation gives you cash but keeps the wealth for itself."

"Debasement of currency is the enslavement of the people."

Growing potatoes in cardboard boxes

I mentioned in my previous post about planting potatoes in cardboard boxes. Well, I have decided to do a little experiment this year, comparing all the methods I use for potato growing.

In the past I have used car tyres for growing potatoes but became worried about the contents of car tyres leaching into the potatoes. Besides, cardboard boxes are a lot easier to get hold of than tyres and free tubs. The boxes only need to last a season and can then be composted after the harvest.

In a corner of the garden that is not much use for anything other than potato growing I have a few tubers already sprouting.

To use cardboard boxes for growing make sure you open both ends of the box so that there is drainage and room for roots to find their own way. You are merely using the box to hold earth up so that it doesn't spread around.

The box on the right I used as a surround for existing plants and the one on the left is for some new tubers. I placed two seed potatoes on the top soil and placed a shovel of earth on top of them. As they grow the box will be earthed up. The potatoes that don't have a cardboard surround will act as a control to compare yield. After harvesting the potatoes, the boxes will just be dug into the soil as worm food.

Over the years I have noticed that good earthing up affects yield. In deep beds earthing up material settles and moves away from the plant stem. In plastic tubs the earthing up material is constrained by the walls of the tub and the crop yield is higher.