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One of the delights of every early summer used to be our early potatoes.  We thought we'd have a go this year with one of those 'patio potato planters' and it arrived with three reusable plastic bag things and three sets of 5 seed potatoes, to be planted at different times.

This is what they looked like growing:
....and here's the crop from the second container




They were delicious served with melted butter beside some plain roast chicken.


Here's my cucumber, grown from a neighbour's plant  :rolleyes




And, while I know this is an awful picture (poor light and a camera which isn't good at dusk) I had to post it as I'm so proud of having grown some flowers this year.


Congratulations. My fingers aren't very green at all, and things I plant usually don't germinate or get exterminated by dalek slugs.
BTW, that cucumber looks odd. what sort is it?
Wow, everything came out great. I wonder if I should try potatoes in cannisters. I'd pretty much given up on them, because the critters dig them up before I can get to them. I think I'll try that next time. Thanks for the hint.

Your flowers are gorgeous. What a pleasure.
What do seed potatoes look like.
They look pretty much like ordinary potatoes, but they're selected for regrowing.
Thanks everyone :)

They do look like ordinary potatoes, but you allow the nobbles to develop into small budding shoots before you plant them.

Asy, the canisters thing worked out better than I imagined.  However, we harvested the first lot too early and they were small and innumerous (?).  The second container we left longer, till the flowers had been on quite a while, and got 1.79kg of lovely potatoes.  The third is still waiting out there to be dug.  OK so it's not exactly self-sufficiency  :lol  but home-grown new potatoes are one of the nicest things ever.

Eccles, I've no idea of the breed of cucumber.  I bought the plant from a neighbour for 50p along with some tomato plants (the money was for charity!)  I wish I did know because while I'm steadily chonking my way through that cuke, it's not very nice  :mad   Tough and has a strong taste, not at all like the ice-green delicacy of normal cucumber.
They do look like ordinary potatoes, but you allow the nobbles to develop into small budding shoots before you plant them


Some of my ordinary potatoes do that if I forget them and leave them in the vegetable rack too long. I guess they are just the nicest ordinary potatoes then. ?

I may try planting them amongst the weeds next time and see what happens next year.

I agree it is not actually self sufficiency and these tales about people in the war growing their own veg would not have fed their family would they. It must have just been a treat now and then which is nice but history is wrong and merry has proved it for us.

And like in the war she is persevering with not nice food. People ususally just throw stuff out that they don't like these days.
Perhaps Asy knows what that cucumber is. Americans seem to use a greater variety of these vegetables than Brits are used to seeing.
I can't imagine how much work it would be to produce enough veg for the whole family!  When we had loads fo room for veg we grew lots of pots but still never enough to feed a family for the year.  Especially since as they got bigger they were plagued with various nibbling things that ate holes in the tubers and then it;s really hard to keep them without them turning green after some months (that made Eccles so sick that time.)

I think if you grew pots in the Olden Days you probably simply selected the best of last year's crop to be your new seed for next year.  But nowadays they have to be specially trained or something like that and people would think you mad to try to grow them from your own.  

People ususally just throw stuff out that they don't like these days.


I do think I'm being very good eating this thing.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's not secretly a marrow, that would explain a lot.  Imagine eating chunks of raw marrow in your salad every night :(
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