Kitchen Garden Forum

Good afternoon, Barney, lovely to see you on the forum and I hope you are keeping well!

In answer to your question, I suppose the answer could be both….a round potato could be cut sideways, while a long oval potato could be cut longways…..

Thought I liked to cut them longwise, the number of eyes dictated where I cut them.

But a round potato doesn’t have a long-side, Shallot Man……or am I being too clever for my own good….

Just filled up with petrol. Wonder if I can get a mortgage.

oldherbaceous wrote:Good afternoon, Barney, lovely to see you on the forum and I hope you are keeping well!

In answer to your question, I suppose the answer could be both….a round potato could be cut sideways, while a long oval potato could be cut longways…..

I suppose it was a bit of a silly question OH but I have always slit them down from where the eyes are showing which is generally longways. I was however watching an old Geoffrey Smith Vegetable garden video a couple of days ago and he cut them in half across the tuber and as he was such an excellent gardener and presenter I questioned the way I had always done it.

Yes 0H, I'm keeping well and I do hope that you (and your family) are also keeping well; you have been the mainstay of this forum.

I don't do as much gardening these days but I managed to plant a few onion sets today and have sown some flowers, chillies and tomatoes in my glasshouse I rushed to get my potatoes in and cheated as I used an old Ferguson potato ridger to draw out the furrows as rain was forecast but it has been quite dry and sunny here in Somerset and I could have taken my time and done it a little more carefully by hand.

Best wishes, keep posting and gardening

Barney

I think yourself and Shallot Man are certainly doing it the correct way, cutting them with some eyes/shoots on both parts….just me being silly about round potatoes,!

All well here thank you, Barney…..just a little slower at doing some jobs but, I think we are al like that…

Glad you are still getting your hands in the soil….do yo still do your Broad beans, Barney?

OH. Brought back memories as a boy in WW2. No seed potatoes. Only varieties where red & white. No names. My job at planting time was to cut the head from the spud that had the eyes. Mum cooked the rest for dinner.

oldherbaceous wrote:I think yourself and Shallot Man are certainly doing it the correct way, cutting them with some eyes/shoots on both parts….just me being silly about round potatoes,!

All well here thank you, Barney…..just a little slower at doing some jobs but, I think we are al like that…

Glad you are still getting your hands in the soil….do yo still do your Broad beans, Barney?

I only grow broad beans for my wife and me now, the fields I used to rent to grow them on have all got houses built on them now.
I've also slowed up now but whenever I visit a village, town or city I still like to wander around people's allotments and see what they are up to. I must try and visit some NT gardens this year I always enjoy seeing their vegetable gardens.

Best wishes

Barney

My lower back has forced me to take it easy now. Long gone are the 4 allotment plots I shared with my parents, who retired to Dorset in 2018. I now have a very small rectangle plot at the bottom of the garden.
Garlic is looking good & healthy. Tomatoes & peppers growing on in the greenhouse, and lettuce 'little gem' ready for pricking out. I've also sowed carrots, but last year foxes and slugs destroyed all 3 sowings, so I'm not hopeful!
I also lost all the tomatoes last year to blight - first time in 30 years of growing that has happened. I've got a teeny plastic grow house for them this year, I'll put the peppers in there too, on the small rectangle plot.
I pulled up the kalettes last weekend, after scavenging the last sprouts. They could have gone on, especially as it's been cold this week, but would have bolted fairly soon I think. They were still forming little sproutlets. They've been a huge success, fed us greenery since early winter.

Retropants - good to know that you're still gardening despite the aches and pains which seem to be increasingly affecting us all.
It's surprising how much one can still grow in a small area. I think our main vegetable patch will have to be grassed over this spring after 45 years which is a real blow for me.

However, we still have a comparatively long south facing border for hopefully growing tomatoes, climbing beans , the odd cucumber and some clumps of salad greenery. I find it hard to contemplate not growing anything at all to pick and eat but what we grow will now dependent on my OH's ability to manage it. Strangely I would much rather be out there getting my hands dirty and doing it than standing on the sidelines adopting a "managerial supervision" role !

I bet your OH wishes that too, Primrose….

Too right OH !!!

He can't believe my beady eyes spot all kinds of issues which come screaming out at me that completely pass him by.
Last summer he complained I could spot a tomato sideshoot at 10 yards whereas he barely still realised what a sideshoot was !!

Primrose, my DH does not do gardening AT ALL! He will cut the grass, and always miss a bit, it's a running joke now. He'll lop back something too big for me to reach, or help digging something out that I have battled and lost, but that's pretty much it. He enjoys the looking bit, the flowers, bees, doves, robins etc.

:Retropants. - no point in offering to do a swap then ?

You do make me smile, Primrose…