Went and planted out our earlies today we thought we would do the hole method first what hard work that was so on our next lot we dug a trench. Only trouble I had with the hole method was after I put the manure & straw on top it came upto ground level. Hope the spuds are covered well.
Interested how u do yours??
Well as I have explained many times before my compost goes in, in the autumn!!
At planting out time I just sink my bulb planter in, form a hole, pop a tuber in and scrape some soil into the hole with my foot!!
When the whole bed is planted I just rake the lot to leave things looking a bit tidier.
In the past, I have dug long trenches, plonked the spuds in, then backfilled. Decided this is a lot of work when my time is so precious, so as the beds were prepared back in the autumn, I weeded them, raked them, then dug holes with my trowel, plonked in spud and raked the spoil back in. Job done in a quarter of the time. ;D
I used to do it the hard way too, until I got an allotment and had acres to plant! Now I use a bulb planter, like TG. Lay the potatoes out to get the spacing right, go along with a bulb planter & pop them in, dropping the soil back into the hole as you go, then rake up a slight ridge just to mark the row. Cover with straw if you think there's a frost in the offing.
Brought a blub planter today so may use that now, well have a go anyway.
Did half and half this year ;D
I lay out a bed of spuds, then bury them with a trowel and sling several barrowloads of grass cuttings on top.
Well, I mounded up the soil on either side of a trench about 6 inches deep. Then I planted the spuds in holes in the trench. I was planning to level the soil in a few weeks when the shoots are growing, ant then earth up mounds over the shoots a few days later. Anyone know what I mean ??? Difficult to explain, but I thought it would make the earthing up thing a bit easier.
cj :)
Even with Autumn and early spring digging you couldn't lpant ours with a bulb planter, not even the ones you stand on... so it is Trenching all the way, with a heavy duty trenching spade and a chillington hoe to back fill. Even the beds we put a 4" layer of manure on last back end had to be turned over with a fork before we could trench them! ;D