Potato Planters

Potatoes are easy to grow.

Two years ago I put a sprouting potato from the supermarket into a vegetable bed, not expecting anything. It took over the entire bed and didn’t stop growing even though I cut it back. Eventually it gave me a whole bag’s worth of potatoes.

The great thing about growing your own potatoes, apart from the fact that all fresh veg tastes better, is that there are so many different varieties to try. You won’t find them all in the supermarket.

This year I decided to try planting them in bags, and I have been converted to this method. It keeps the plant out of everything else, and also allows you to grow the plant upwards.

I planted two different types of potato this year. I bought them as seed potatoes. I planted Charlotte potatoes (salad potatoes) and Red Duke of York potatoes (an all rounder, but not available in all shops)

I put a thin layer of compost at the bottom of the bag, put in the seed potatoes, and covered the over with some more compost.

I cover everything I plant with netting these days – as any bare earth in my garden gets dug up by animals. Here I re-used part of an old trampoline net. I secured the netting with re-usable clips.

If you don’t have a problem with squirrels and foxes the netting isn’t necessary.

As the plants grow, I am adding more earth – this will (hopefully) fool the plant into growing more potatoes. In theory I should be able to harvest them from the bottom of the bag as they grow up.