Planting potatoes and finishing the brassica cage

​Tuesday 16th April

Having spent so much time renovating my brassica cage, I had to pause and sort out my potatoes. The first earlies were through and needed earthing up - though this year I will use horse litter and grass cuttings (following my new no-dig policy).

​I had taken home the kale plants after my last visit and stripped them of leaves and sprouts for the freezer, so there was room to plant a row of seed potatoes. 
No-dig does mean I didn't have to dig over the patch but just hoe the weeds and cultivate the surface. I then buried the seed potatoes just beneath the surface with a tiny ridge to ensure the chitted shoots were covered. Then I drew a small ridge of soil over the row ready for mulching with a thick mulch of horse litter.

​I mulched the early potatoes, carefully covering the emerging shoots, and covered all that patch including the second earlies and Cara potatoes. Not tidy but effective!
I then had time to pick yet more purple sprouting, this time from the dwarf plants on the new cabbage patch inside the newly constructed brassica cage.

​I finished off by putting the finishing touches to the cage with a pair of hooks to hold up the batten the door netting is wound round.