One potato, two potato...

On a recent trip to Ireland we had a day out at Lissadell House and gardens. It’s a grand 19th century house overlooking Sligo Bay with two fantastically well stocked gardens – one for alpines and the other for crops. The house was completed in 1833 but had fallen into poor repair in recent years. New owners have carefully restored it and cultivated the gardens which were overgrown for over six decades.


To mark the UN ‘International Year of the Potato’ they planted 169 different varieties of spud along the circumference of the walled kitchen garden. Many of the potatoes were from the heritage collection of David Langford which was donated to Lissadell. Their most popular varieties are the Orla, an early, blight resistent potato bred in Carlow in 1999; the Arran Victory, a maincrop potato first bred in 1918 and the Pink Fir Apple, a salad potato bred in 1850.

fresh fruit sundae

The sky glowered and there were strong winds throwing the gulls off-track as they flew over the allotments today. Still, the rain kept off. I planted 30 slender leeks (not as thick as a pencil yet) and earthed up the potatoes. The potato plants of my surrounding plot holders are tall and in flower. I was late getting mine in the ground so they have a while to catch up but hopefully we will get a late harvest. The raspberry bushes were weighted down with ripe fruit and a couple of the onions were ready to pull. These are the rewards for a bit of effort on the weekend.

Upside Down

The ups...
Home grown peas are so sweet that I am trying to grow sucessional crops this year. The First Felham peas are producing well and the second sowing of Balmoral peas are now in flower. I've just sown some more so hopefully this will see us through the summer. The potato plants are looking healthy and some have come into flower. Now is the time to water them in order to help the tubers swell - especially as the weather is so hot.

And the downs...
The broad beans are starting to fatten up although the blackfly have really got hold and, even through the plants have attracted a good number of ladybirds, I think it is a losing battle. Things are also not looking so good with the brassicas - I planted out some kale and calebrese a couple of weeks ago but something has stripped all the leaves off them - I'm guessing it might be birds so have netted them and hope they might recover. Oh yeah and as I was striding about watering the potatoes I went and squashed my only courgette plant that was doing really well.