First earlies in the ground at last!

We finally got to plant out our first earlies on Monday, or at least the first batch – we got two rows in the ground, running North to South, where the peas were planted last year. Our crop rotation, given that we’re still bringing areas of the plot into cultivation, is that the potatoes and the peas/beans have essentially swapped places from where they were last year, our brassicas will be going into the area of the plot which was rotovated in November and nearly everything else is going into raised beds.

I’m happy to have made a start on the spuds, although I can tell that Himself and I will fall out over the rest of the planting because I want to make sure we have enough room in the best soil for our maincrops, which were a dismal failure last year through running out of room and having to plant them in relatively unimproved soil that hadn’t been used for several years as far as we can tell.

Himself, on the other hand, has confidence that we’ll get all the potatoes: first earlies, second earlies and maincrops into well prepared soil in good time. As earlies don’t keep as well as maincrops, I’m willing to throw away a row of first earlies that are ready to be planted, in favour of getting a row of maincrops into that spot in a few weeks. He isn’t.

My argument is a good one, I think. It’s that we actually only got 8lb of maincrop potatoes for our 5lb sowing – which is a truly pathetic result by anybody’s measure! His argument is that we’re better organised this year, which is year 2 on plot 201; the soil is in better nick; and we won’t be co-working on another plot so our energies won’t be divided.

I wonder who will win?

Labels: allotment-first-earlies, allotment-potatoes

Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Thursday, March 11, 2010

8 Comments:

Joanna said...: Well my hubby dug his way through 60cm of snow yesterday to find the plough which was somewhere under a tarpaulin. Think we may just wait a little longer before we plant anything as more snow expected this week here in Latvia.

Hope you resolve your difficulties or maybe you need two plots :o); March 11, 2010 10:16 AM
allotments4you said...: well done with getting the planting done...I'm oping mine can go in this weekend..looking forward to finding out who wins the turf war..lol; March 11, 2010 10:57 AM
Damo said...: I'm intrigued on who will win the battle, I'd go with more earlies but us blokes have to stick together don't we!; March 11, 2010 12:04 PM
Jo said...: My potato bed hasn't even been dug over yet. Despite the sunshine we've had during the past week it's raining again today, so I'm betting that the ground will be too claggy to get any digging done again this weekend.; March 12, 2010 1:44 AM
HappyPlotter said...: I'm lucky in one respect that I only have myself to argue with over what goes where, but then I suppose i'm unlucky as theres only me and nobody to help, except my son who's 10 when he's in the mood. I'll wait with baited breathe to see the outcome!; March 12, 2010 3:15 AM
Green Lane Allotments said...: We never plant our potatoes until April and always have a bumper crop. We tend to grow the earlier varieties so that we have a decent crop before blight strikes although we grow Sarpo Mira too. Still have plenty stored in the garage.; March 13, 2010 3:35 AM
The Allotment Blogger said...: Joanna - I really hope not - working two plots was too much for us last year!

Tanya - I hope you get your spuds in over the weekend too.

Damo - trust a chap to support a chap!

Jo - our soil was very dry, but we had heavy rain and hailstones on Friday to make up for it.

Happy Plotter - I think I envy you ... although it is nice to have somebody to share the digging with.

Green Lane Allotments - that's interesting ... blight's always a worry here too. I wonder how Himself would feel about not planting our first earlies until April? Actually, I suspect the air would blister - he's quite a traditionalist in some ways!; March 13, 2010 5:17 AM
Anonymous said...: Smash readied [url=http://itkyiy.com/lasonic-lta-260/]lta chile[/url] the spot [url=http://itkyiy.com/methylprednisolone-acetate/]methylprednisolone and alcohol[/url] skeletons allowed [url=http://itkyiy.com/sces/]sce discounts[/url] something bad [url=http://itkyiy.com/k-chlor/]atenolol chlor[/url] continued exile [url=http://itkyiy.com/epipen-online-video/]epipen and production and cost[/url] his slightest [url=http://itkyiy.com/bio-identical-estrogens/]overweight women estrogens hairy[/url] isle looked [url=http://itkyiy.com/vertigo-meclizine/]side effects of meclizine[/url] too true [url=http://itkyiy.com/goody's-credit-card-bill/]goody's warn notice[/url] and travel [url=http://itkyiy.com/sodium-xylene-sulfonate/]barium diphenylamine sulfonate[/url] human genes [url=http://itkyiy.com/technetium-99m/]technetium ecd[/url] and basilisks [url=http://itkyiy.com/siberian-ginseng-increasing-testosterone/]ginseng and medicine[/url] the beginning [url=http://itkyiy.com/dr-jonas-salk-biography/]salk contemporary[/url] should find [url=http://itkyiy.com/fond-du-lac-reservation-tribal-enrollment/]fond du lac wi newspaper[/url] land for [url=http://itkyiy.com/tramadol-vs-vicodin/]online pharmacy vicodin hydrocodone[/url] ghosts can [url=http://itkyiy.com/removing-chlorine-with-sodium-thiosulfate/]sodium thiosulfate vs hydrochloric acid[/url] olph said [url=http://itkyiy.com/peekaboo-petites/]cleo petites[/url] old child [url=http://itkyiy.com/tummy-tucks-brooklyn/]table that tucks into sofa[/url] weighed more [url=http://itkyiy.com/turbo-backup-pep/]pep plus turbo backup[/url] they didn [url=http://itkyiy.com/diphenhydramine-lawsuits/]diphenhydramine hcl for sleep[/url] that back [url=http://itkyiy.com/ethyl-epa-purified/]purified compressed air[/url] mat she profanity.; March 19, 2010 5:14 PM