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Closerie Falaiseau Flowers and gardens

A Barrow of Spuds – Une brouette de patates

photo_218_potatoesToday, we brought in our potato crop. Potatoes are very easy to grow and require absolutely no maintenance, unlike our tomatoes which suffered from lack of watering and got blight.
Aujourd”hui nous avons récolté nos pommes de terre. Il est très facile de faire pousser les pommes de terres qui ne demandent aucun entretien à la différence de nos tomates qui ont souffert d’un manque d’arrosage et du mildiou.

5 replies on “A Barrow of Spuds – Une brouette de patates”

@william – Jean Michel has calculated about 60 kilos which means we will have to increase our potato consumption!
@Susan – yes, they are charlottes. Blight is what caused the great Irish migration, isnt it? I’ve just read your post and realised that we shouldn’t have left the blighted tomatoes on the ground.

I think JM’s estimate is fairly close. My harvest bucket holds just under 15kg, I reckon you’ve got 4 x my bucket there in the barrow.
If you can get away with it, burn your tomato plants, preferably where they were growing. If not, pick up every bit you can and take it to the tip. Definitely don’t grow tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, peppers or chillies in the bed next year and ideally not for another 4 years. Keep the bed dry if you can — the organism needs water to activate. Even with all the precautions in the world though, most blight infections come from neighbouring gardens, with spores blown in on the wind (up to 20 km).
I don’t think potato blight caused the Irish exodus, but it was probably the last straw. The potato crop failed several years in a row. That combined with enclosure of land by absentee greedy uncaring landlords, and a desperately poor local population, anyone who could got out. There were localised famines caused by potato blight all over Europe in the mid-19thC.

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