Potatoes!

[shermarama]

My potatoes are going nuts. They're in special potato-growing bags on the balcony; you plant them in a small amount of soil in the bottom, and as they sprout up, you keep adding soil to earth them up, til you get to the top of the bag. The first lot that went in only appeared above the surface in about the second week of April, but already I've had to earth them up three times - there's probably only one more earthing-up possible before they reach the top.

The evidence: 18th of April:


22nd April:


28th April:


I'm so pleased with having growing things doing their growing thing that the actual potatoes in August are just going to be a bonus.

Comments

[ultraruby.livejournal.com]

Cor! They really are growing apace. Those sacks seem a really nice idea too. I love growing stuff.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Oo, even swifter than mine! Do these magic potato bags help? I may have to try them myself if so - they appear handily reusable, which beats new cardboard boxes every growing season.

[shermarama]

If I had actual ground I'd use that, myself, but given that I've only got a balcony they're being pretty good. They are reusable but they were moderately expensive, about the same price as rigid tubs of the same size, albeit with the advantage in the off-season.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Being able to fold them up for storage is quite tempting...where did you get them?

[shermarama]

From a garden centre in the vicinity of Leicester. They're this, more or less, only I bought a 3-pack.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I might keep an eye out next time I'm in the garden centre...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Yay spuds. You will be overrun soon, it's all this rain.

^don't delete those anonymous comments straight away in frustration, save a screenshot with the IP address showing, if you are logging IP addresses. If they are not random, the record might be useful later.

[shermarama]

I should probably start logging IP addresses, shouldn't I? It never occurred to me that these weren't basically random.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I think the Japanese ones are spam directed at any public post in which anonymous commenting is allowed, but I'm not sure about the others.