Gardening self-care is not just about flowers, it’s also about fresh food, albeit in small quantities. I have a track record with tomatoes, which I have grown in pots or grow bags as well as in the ground. Similarly peppers (capsicums) do not need much space although more warmth and may be happier under glass, even in sunny and getting sunnier, London. Onions have been small but perfectly formed and certainly edible.
My attempt last year to grow a complete ratatouille failed, as the aubergines, although healthy enough, did not even flower. I was heartened, however, when a professional gardener at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s stand at Hampton Court flower show confessed that he personally had given up on them, as they are so tricky.
Why grow potatoes in a small garden?
This year for the first time, I am trying potatoes. For one, my Dad says they condition the soil and in the hot summer of 2022 the veg patch was rock hard. Then I find that compared to the past, shop-bought potatoes go green, soft or sprout in less than a week – whether this is modern production and storage methods (plastic bags and refrigeration replacing the wholesaler paper sacks and retail brown bags of my childhood) or the types of potatoes we now grow, I’m not sure – but I certainly am wasting them. Recently, I found out the traditional technique of burying potatoes in a pit – somewhat counter intuitive.
So my plan is to dig them up as and when I need them – a kind of cut and come again for tubers. It is early days, but so far, so good. Today (mid-June) I saw my first potato flower and then I spotted several buds.
Old and new potatoes
I have yet to read up on this, but I assume that as the summer goes on I will move from harvesting new potatoes to old ones and this will follow the culinary season of salads to roasties and maybe jackets. I have yet to get to grips with first early, second early and main crops.
Playing recipe bingo, I have settled on my potato salad recipe of choice – no mayo but lemon- based and easy to make – Bon appetit!
Lemon Potato Salad – Recipe Tin Eats website