Digging the spuds

It's been a lovely sunny day today, so I went down the garden to dig up some of the spuds.

I planted the spuds around March/April last year and they should have been dug up months ago, but I was really ill last year and couldn't. I had expected the spuds to have all rotted, but found about 1/3rd were perfectly fine and usable.

The spud bed is 8ft x 8ft. The ground was quite hard from not having been touched for so long. I managed to dig about 3/4 of the ground before I ached too much - it's the first real digging for a long time and I'm not quite as fit as I should be! But I did get 3 large pots of spuds, and might get one more large pot when I finish the digging.

Last year I mixed varieties in the garden, so I have no idea what varieties I've just dug up. The reds are easy to spot, but there are a mix of reds, small salad sputs and large whites. It doesn't matter too much, I'll just use them!

Last year I didn't earth up properly either. There were lots of ruined spuds on the surface. This year I'll pay more attention and earth up properly.

I did ruin a few good spuds by digging down into the soil and digging through some spuds. I've realised now that spuds don't grow very deeply, and it's easy enough to fork underneath and lift the soil to lift the spuds without damaging them.

I will do a lot better this year with spuds. I will !!