Newbe needing advice.

[tryagain]

Hello everyone, as the title says newbe looking for advice.
I am wanting to grow potatoes in my back garden but at the moment there is grass there. Is it alright to rotovate the grass clean it out and grow potatoes? I grew some potatoes last year in pots but they didnt grow that much so thought Id try in the ground this year.
Any help appreciated
tryagain

[dankay123]

Yeah i would be to me but the ground is probably going to be really compacted. You would be best marking out your area, dig off the grass and stack it so it breaks down and it can then be added to the bed as a compost. Loosen the entire bed with a fork and then rotovator the ground. Trying to rotovate without breaking the soil up can be near impossible depending on what your ground is like. For spuds I use manure pellets in the trench as I am planting and also I add potash and slug pellets. Works for me. Hope this helps

[Newton]

Stack the turfs upside down and keep them for a year. They will break down to a lovely loam. Spuds are good for breaking the ground. Dig first but no real need to rotorvate........kills the worms and spreads nasty roots like couch grass and mares tail!

Welcome to the vine.....both of you.......

[Aberdeenplotter]

I wouldn't stack the turves separately. trench the ground one row at a time. Take out the first trench and take the soil removed to the other end of the plot. Skim the grass off the next row and put it face down in the bottom of the trench then dig the soil placing it over the turves. Repeat row by row to the end of the plot and fill in the final row using the soil from the first trench. The decomposing grass will feed your crop.

I agree that spuds are a great crop to start off a vegetable plot but it is not the spuds that do the breaking of the ground. It is the gardener who is constantly moving the ground in the following processes. Firstly, digging the ground, then setting up ridges, pulling the ridges down again once spuds are planted in position, then earthing the spuds up as the grow and finally lifting the crop. It's also an excellent way of cleaning the ground of annual weeds which don't survive the constant soil movement and of course they are deprived of light by the dense foliage

[alldigging]

These lazy beds look good.
Growing vegetables on Leeds allotments - Lazy Beds


Although removing turf and stacking it to rot down is a great idea it also leaves your prepared bed lower than the soil level. Which if we have a wet year again will lead to puddles.

[tryagain]

Thanks everyone for the replies,
Can any one advise me on the best way to go about planting the potatoes once I have the ground done. How deep should they be planted? how far apart?
Sorry for all the questions but would really like to start growing my own veg.

[alldigging]

If you do lazy beds I'd just put them on top of the muck and cover with the sides.

[Two_Sheds]

How deep should they be planted? how far apart?

about 5" deep, and 12" apart for earlies, 18" apart for maincrop (because they're bigger).


I didn't stack my lawn when I dug it over, I just turned the sods upside down (grass side down), and planted into the sods with a trowel or bulb planter

Much quicker, much easier. It's all going to get dug over when you harvest the spuds anyway

[tryagain]

alldigging,
have you used the lazy bed system? do you get good results doing it this way?
Two Sheds,
when planting potatoes this way where do you get the soil from to cover up the potatoes once they start growing? Like when you start covering up the new shoots?

Again sorry if these questions sound stupid, I'm just wanting to make sure I'm getting it right.

[alldigging]

alldigging,
have you used the lazy bed system? do you get good results doing it this way?
Two Sheds,
when planting potatoes this way where do you get the soil from to cover up the potatoes once they start growing? Like when you start covering up the new shoots?

Again sorry if these questions sound stupid, I'm just wanting to make sure I'm getting it right.

I haven't - my plot wasn't mown so didn't have turf on just weeds. And I hadn't read about that until I'd virtually finished sorting my plot out.
My OH won't let me experiment on any more of our garden either.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Thanks everyone for the replies,
Can any one advise me on the best way to go about planting the potatoes once I have the ground done. How deep should they be planted? how far apart?
Sorry for all the questions but would really like to start growing my own veg.

Whatever you do, don't be in too much of a rush. Our season is a minimum of 4 weeks behind Middle England. I don't plant till mid April at earliest

[tryagain]

Aberdeenplotter
Yeah I wasnt gona plant til april just wanting to know how to go about it and if I should start preparing the ground now. What I should and shouldnt do now in order to get things going in the right direction.
Again thanks everyone for your help.

[rustylady]

At the moment Tryagain you should be concentrating on clearing your ground of perennial weeds if the weather and the ground are suitable for digging.

[Two_Sheds]

where do you get the soil from to cover up the potatoes

You mean earthing up?
I don't bother, I cover them with a mulch of grass clippings, newspapers, or leafmould

Much less work

[Paulieb]

I grew some potatoes last year in pots but they didnt grow that much...........

How were you set up with the pots? How many spuds per bucket, etc.? Apparently yield is slightly better from the ground, plus you don't need to water as much. I think you need to water lots with spuds in buckets (like half a watering can per bucket every other day).

Good luck with digging the turf, its hard work, but worth it when its done.