potatoes - novice gardener needs advice!

[midnightexpress]

We're in the process of renovating our garden, which was untouched for about 20 years before we moved in. We Rounduped the brambles and other weeds last year, and are in the process of digging out the roots of all the perennial weeds at the moment, but it's heavy clay, on an exposed hillside in the west of Scotland

[GentleOtter]

Which type of potatoes are you going to plant ?

[GentleOtter]

Make a 'soup' from the weeds that you are removing. Steep them in water for a week or two then dilute and spray on the ground. The weeds will contain a lot of the nutrients that they have stolen from the soil.
Plenty of dung and some seaweed too if you can.

We are very exposed too but the potatoes do well.

[midnightexpress]

Oh. D'oh, yes. Sorry.

I've got Arran Pilot for 1st earlies, some second earlies (can't remember offhand what they are, Dp came home with them) and some ratte maincrop - not many of these, and may also try to get hold of some bigger maincrops as ratte are really nice as small potatoes, i think, so it would be good to have something baky for winter.

[GentleOtter]

at Arran Pilot. yum.

[midnightexpress]

I have a bucket of soup brewing under the bench outside . Most of what I'm taking up is well dead roots, but there are also new annnual weeds starting to come through now (argh, hence the membrane) so am throwing them in.

Seaweed a good idea - had been thinking of that for the compost heap actually. Will see if I can rope the LOs into some harvesting with me at the weekend!

[missingtheaction]

Using potatoes to clear ground is an old trick - it works if you aren't too fussed about eating the potatoes! Potato plants suppress weeds and are easy to hoe around, and all that digging does break up the soil. But potatoes do like a fairly good soil and they can be a magnet for eelworms and slugs so you may have a pretty variable crop.

Ask Bob if you suffer from blight - if it's a windy site you may not get much, in which case you can plant what you want. If you do get blight go for some blight resistant varieties. Either way for ground clearing I would go for little earlies (international kidney is my personal favourite) and tough new varieties that are easy growers (swift for example). Don't go for old varieties that are susceptible to everything - like King Edwards. It will make you cry.

You could try clover as a green manure on some of your cleared ground.

[midnightexpress]

Oh are they good? Splendid! I figured that if they do well on Arran, they might stand a chance in Glasgow.

[midnightexpress]

Thanks! I tell you, if it works, we're going to be eating potatoes until they are coming out of our ears! We do have a bit of a slug problem, so was actually thinking of using nemaslug before planting. Have you tried it? Does it work?

Have also got green manure seeds - clover, phacelia and alfafa, but the LOs are 3 and 2 and I'm working full-time, so realistically have so little time to actually get the old roots out first (and some of those brambles are serious) that I figured it would be best to concentrate on getting about a third of it (plot is about 80ft x 35) clear, cover the rest and just uncover and plant up as I go with the green manure, with potatoes on the bit that I've managed to get done so far.

And have, rather pathetically, cleared a tiny little patch behind the compost bin and planted a hellebore, some foxgloves and some snowdrops, which are doing fabulously well . It's my Hopeful Corner.

[GentleOtter]

Some ducks would munch the slugs - very easy to look after.....and chickens would scratch the soil.....

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

I love the idea of a Hopeful Corner.

Good luck!

[mistlethrush]

We've got heavy clay - I've ended up with raised beds to stop the plants floating away (!). Clay is a really good basis - but you need to add a lot - I dug in a lot of chalk (I know its called something else, but its in the garage and its wet so I'm not going out to find out what its called, sorry!) which helps to break up the clay quite a bit. I'm also adding a lot of compost and manure - I put in well rotted horse manure at a spade down this winter - 3 years in.

I grow great runner beans, and have done since year one - trench filled with compost before they were planted seemed to do the trick.

I really recommend trying not to tread on the ground that you are wanting to use - use pathways that you won't want to dig up, then use planks or similar to spread your weight for the rest of the area - even when digging. You don't want to compact it more than it already is! I am aiming for a no-dig veg garden like my father had - one you've got the weeds down and sufficient compost etc in the soil it should be possible just to top dress with compost every winter and let the worms do the rest. This depends on not introducing any weeds etc with the compost - so you need to make sure anything you bring in isn't going to introduce any weeds (eg horse manure - any hay needs to be well rotted in with anything else otherwise there will be a lot of grass seed that will just start growing).

[midnightexpress]

Thanks mistlethrush. It's been pretty wet for the last couple of weeks and I've really noticed the bits that I've been treading on are turning into a bit of a quagmire, so will have to figure out a way round that - planks a good idea, temporarily. I'd considered raised baeds, and may yet come back to them, but at the moment we're not really sure how the garden is going to pan out, in terms of layout, so didn't want to put them in until we have a better idea - will concentrate on clearing everything over first.

Love the idea of ducks, but no pond yet (again something I was considering, for frogs, but haven't got time to sort it out and the leaves would potentially be a nightmare). Chickens, though, are a possibility. Next-door neighbours have a similar patch to ours, but more sheltered, and they don't use it, but it has an enormous old dog run, with a house that would be perfect for chickens, so we were thinking of making them an offer (a hundredweight of potatoes, perhaps...).

Thanks for all teh advice - off to bed now.

[mistlethrush]

Just a word of caution - ducks paddle everything around a lot - on clay you could end up with a real mess. Chickens, whilst they scratch, would probably create less damage...

If your're on a hillside - is there any chance you can do a bit of terracing? would give you the drainage benefit.