This is the third and final part depicting - mainly in pictures - my experiment to grow tatties in the front garden. Links to earlier parts where I cleared the ground, made it dog-proof, constructed a stone terrace and planted the tatties, are below:

May 2021

I pick up again just as the little potato shoots are making themselves known. How exciting!

June 2021

As May rolls into June, and the little ones grow to a few inches in height, I earth them up with a mixture of compost and the groovy horseshit I had gathered from the bridal paths nearby. This is to give them more space in which to multiply, for the original soil has a lot of clay and is pretty dense. A dung beetle, lost and far from home, trudges through the poop.

I repeat the earthing-up process two or three times as required, delighting in the growth of the little tatties. @flamistan watches from her spot under the hedge, on the other side of the dog-proof fence.

July 2021

The Summer is now high and the plants keep getting bigger and bigger, their leaves catching the rays and strengthening the stems. These guys are thirsty and the number of water buckets required to satisfy them keeps increasing. I eventually locate the garden hose and that saves me a lot of energy.

August 2021

Sun, water and TLC have resulted in some pretty filled-out potato plants which reach up to and above chest height. The potatoes come into flower and the plants are at their peak, a very fine sight.

However, all things pass! Once the flowers die the plant itself begins to wind down and the leaves start to wither. The withering of the plants mean harvest time for Barge. I dig into the soil, taking a few plants at a time and having great fun seeing the layers of tatties strung together. At a rough estimate I got around 40-50 kilos of tatties from the 30-odd plants I had growing in the ground, boxes and bags.