Brand new tattie and patches - what to do with it over winter though?

[Croila]

Hi there, if someone can give me some advice I'd be really grateful.

Yesterday my husband dug over a 7' x 5' patch of our back garden so I can plant tatties in it next spring. The soil is horrible - really heavy, sticky clay, and it was always just under grass before so it was really compacted, having been walked on a lot.

I got the dandelions and other weeks out of it (I think!) then dug in a bag of "well-rotted farmyard manure" but I'm wondering what to do with this bed over winter.

Is it too late to sow a green manure, I wonder? And if it's not too late, given that it's never been cultivated before and will hold tatties next spring, what would be the best green manure from a crop rotational perspective?

I've also got a 1' x 7' trench dug from what used to be lawn for peas next spring - same thing, I dug in a load of manure but I'm wondering what to do with it over winter.

I'm loath to leave these patches of soil bare, but I'd like to get them in really good nick for planting next year!

Please can anyone suggest what I should do? Thank you so much!

C

[zazen999]

What I would do is to:

Rake off a couple of inches of the nicely dug soil and put to the side

Lay down a layer or cardboard or two

Rake the soil above back over the cardboard

sow a mustard green manure [most won't germinate now]

The green manure will add some structure and the cardboard will add organic and the worms will drag the cardboard into the soil so come the spring, you can hoe the mustard down, make holes, drop the potatoes in and off you jolly well go.

[Croila]

Ah, you think the mustard will germinate now? Thank you, I will try exactly what you suggest and report progress in due course. Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it

[Croila]

Oh! But what if I've no worms?! I don't see many in our garden. Mind you, It's only had one summer of me working it ...

[Suky]

If you dig it they will come

[womble]

If you want worms you need food for them, which is organic matter.

I would get a load more of manure, if you can get it cheaply and spread that over the top of the bed. You can cover that with cardboard if you want, it will keep down weeds. Next year, cardboard off, ready to go.

[Croila]

Ah ... ok, more manure ... Can only get it from the garden centre in bags so it's not cost free, but it's maybe an investment I need to make. We've been using a dalek composter but only since June so have no home-made soil improver unfortunately, yet anyway.

I was also wondering though, if that soil becomes too rich then will the tattie foliage would grow too much at the expense of tubers ..?

Or maybe with a new piece of growing patch, I'm a million miles away from it being too rich, even with a load of manure and mustard over winter?

[Suky]

Potatoes are often grown as a 'clearing' crop and from memory they don't like too much manure, think it causes scab. I would go with Zazen and if you can't get cardboard try several layers of newspaper instead.

[chris]

Don't they also break up the earth too, as they grow? I'm sure my neighbour planted spud in our garden when I was a kid to break up the compacted earth to keep on top of things...

[Croila]

Thank you, everyone, for the replies

I grew tatties for the first time ever this year in another patch of the garden which had been newly cleared. The taste was incredible but the yield was a bit disappointing, so because I'll be doing the same thing again next spring, I just want to do everything I can to maximise yield this time.

But oh good grief you should see what the tatties did to that horrible, sticky bit of soil! I did put a bit of manure in when I planted them right enough, but when we dug over that bit of grotty ground after lifting the tatties, you wouldn't recognise it! It's now so lovely and crumbly and fibrous - beautiful!

I really do dig tatties

[weekendwellies]

it seems to have been a common problem this year with potatoes. small yields all round. probably more to do with the weather or possibly the seed potatoes themselves?

[Croila]

Hmmm, my mother-in-law over in Fife said their tatties were low yield this year too, plus loads of folks on their allotments had the same problem. Maybe it's not just me then.

I'm just really disappointed that now having tasted homegrown tatties, I just don't have enough of them!