Still getting my hands dirty

I love growing potatoes in tyres it was the first vegetable gardening I ever did about 20 years ago and I have put some in every year since.

Most years I just used the ones I bought commercially that sprouted at the bottom of the vege drawer now I buy them certified organic from diggers, green harvest or The Tasmanian Potato Assoc.

The ones in here are from a friend of mine - they are colibans (he thinks) I will heap some more soil on them this afternoon, and some more mulch so that just the tops of those shoots are visible and then in a week or so I will add another tyre on top and top up the soil and mulch again. Last year some of my stacks got to four tyres high but mostly they top out at three. Once they flower and die down I leave them for a few weeks - although I read today in frost free climates you should cover the tops with a thick layer of mulch first to stop them re shooting - then knock over the tyres and pull out the potatoes.

This year I am also trialling a bed made up of hay bale sides and a deep deep soil - we will see what proves the best and easiest. I have used the rest of my tyres to plant out garlic, we will see if they like warm feet.

Here is the other vege bed (old vege garden site) you can see the corn, with more seeds coming up in front. Some tomatoes around the stakes at the back, broccoli and cabbage, this is where the kale and first rows of beetroot are as well.

These photos were taken early in the morning just as the first rays of the sun were hitting the garden. I love to wander out there with a cup of tea and pull out a few weeds or just look and dream and plan what I will do next or better, or differently.

For example next time this garden gets planted out I am going to only plant one thing in the whole space not loads like i do now - it works but I don't think I get the yeilds I should get.

We need loads of food for our lot so the garden bed above for summer will just be planted out the lettuce continuously one row a week across the bed until the autumn. And I want another bed for just tomaotes, one for cucumber, one for squash, my potatoes tyres will fit anywhere where the sun is so they are always easy and becasue they are moveable the soil is changed every planting season which I only found out today is another potato thing. you shouldn't grow potatoes in soil where potatoes have grown for three years !

Okay off to get some clothes folded and pressed for the week ahead we spent last night in Toowoomba for my BIL brithday party, coffee with friends this morning and then home to do some gardening - so try as I might can't put off the washing basket and ironing basket any longer!!

Daisymum