Nothing can beat homegrown veg
The taste and quality is much better when dug from your soil
Grateful as we are to have potatoes and tomatoes available year-round at the local supermarket, for this fellow they cannot match the taste and quality of those dug from the soil or plucked fresh from the vine on your own premises.
Furthermore, they both lend themselves to container growing, so access to a garden is not essential.
Potatoes and tomatoes are two of the most popular vegetables cultivated by the nation’s gardeners.
Potato tubers appear for sale circa February and are arranged eyes upright, in a tray that is placed in a light, frost-free environment to encourage sturdy shoots. This process offers a head start in growth when they are planted, traditionally over Easter weekend for first early varieties. Harvesting takes around ten weeks.
I grow a decent crop of ‘earlies’ on the vegetable beds but also pursue pot and bag culture for added interest. You can buy potatogrowing kits with tough use-again material bags, but they grow just as well in one that has previously held potting compost. Roll down the sides to halfway, fill to one third with compost or soil and press the tubers gently into it. Pierce a few holes in the base for drainage and keep topping up with compost covering the shoots as they grow.
Don’t forget to water occasionally.
Growing tomatoes offers various starter options. They can be sown either with seed saved from the previous year’s fruit or bought in a sealed packet.
If a heated facility (15 to 20c) is available, they can be started in late February and will germinate within two weeks. However, good light conditions and a minimum temperature of 15 celsius are required for regular growth until May arrives.
Talk to any allotment holder or vegetable enthusiast in late spring and the current state of these two precious crops will emerge. In the gardening world it’s cool to have first early potatoes ready to dig before the end of June, and sturdy tomato plants should have taken up their reserved spot in the unheated polytunnel or greenhouse by the beginning of that month.
Avoid extremes. Too hot and growth becomes soft and drawn. Too cold and the leaves turn blue, suffering a setback. Keep it simple, let the garden centre raise them from seed and buy their young plants in May.