Questions For a Seed Potato Producer

This is a collaborative post

Okay this post is me being a proper geeky farmers son! It's a long post but I think it's really interesting one!

I'm always fascinated in how other farms run and when putting yesterdays post together with Potato House I had so many questions about how they operate, I thought it would be great to do a short questions and answer post. I asked Amy from Potato House the following questions and loved the answers:-

Why is Scotland known for producing seed potatoes? 
Our slightly cooler climate makes it easier to grow healthy seed free from aphid-transmitted diseases. In addition, our farm is at 150 m (500ft) above sea level so it is slightly cooler and better suited for organic seed production. Scotland has long been the supplier of seed potatoes for most potato production across the UK. Scotland also exports seed potatoes to many destinations notably Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, but also the Far East and South America.

Still Time To Plant Potatoes!

This is a collaborative  post

In gardening we are governed by many myths and old wife's tales. Just the other day I was putting in some potatoes and someone said to me that I should have put them in on Good Friday. Now despite the fact that Good Friday moves every year, I can also say that there is no way commercial potato farmers follow these rules - and they get some pretty impressive crops. 

So there is still plenty of time to put in potatoes! 

Another Corner Controlled In The Garden!!!

My garden beds are looking pretty tidy, with only a few left to seriously weed out before planting. 

But there are some big areas of my veg garden that still need a lot of work. This bottom corner is one of them. This area used to be really wet until we drained the field around it, so while it was wet I put in some raised beds (2015 can you believe!). This worked a little bit but in the end they got neglected and the nettles have claimed them as their own.

So now seems the ideal time to take back control and gain a bit more growing space.

Some serious digging and pulling went into clearing this area! I had three barrows full of nettle and dock roots by the end. But with a little path down it I've now gained two more 10ft beds to grow some veggies on.

This is great news as I'm already running out of space and trying to figure out where things could go!

Have you tackled a neglected garden area lately? How did you do it? Plain elbow grease or a better way? Wish I could have got the digger in here to deal with this instead of my spade!

Using Up Leeks

 So the leeks are starting to run to seed and we still have a few in the beds that had them in.

So I'm keen to make sure we don't waste too many! 

Duck Eggs In The Incubator

Using the incubator again! 

The last hatch a friend did at his house. He had runner ducks in there and I had Muscovy in as well. Unfortunately none of my dozen eggs hatched, luckily some of his did so it wasn't a complete failure (for him at least).

So this time I've gone for Aylesbury ducks. I'm hopeful that having some meat ducks will help vary what we produce a bit and if we keep some for breeding we should have some duck eggs.