The upper part of my small vegetable garden only gets partial sun; therefore I am limited in what I can plant. I always want a few spring onions, they do well most anywhere and can go in the ground in March or even before. Black Simpson leaf lettuce is another one of my early spring favorites. Is there anything better than freshly picked lettuce along with a glop of Duke’s Mayonnaise?
This year, I decided to plant a few potatoes in the upper garden. I only did four hills, but I can’t wait for the end product.
It almost seems a waste of space to plant potatoes when you can buy a ten pound bag for three or four bucks, but the taste of a fresh potato – especially those baby potatoes near the plant – is simply unrivalled.
I once planted potatoes beneath newspapers, adding just enough soil on top to keep the paper from blowing away and they did well. I have also planted spuds directly beneath wet leaves, with no soil. They also were productive,.
This year, I planted Yukon Gold potatoes – an especially flavorful variety – and I barely covered the potato eyes with soil, but then added a pile of garden manure to form the hills. The potatoes took their sweet time to sprout – about three weeks – but now they’re up and at ‘em. They say to plant potatoes on the Ides of March and harvest on the Fourth of July. We’ll see.
Planting a small garden is sure fun – and the fruits of the labor sweet.