If you've enjoyed this video, please share it with your friends and on social media! My next video will be homestead garden tour, so don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell to be notified when it's published.
Is that an elderberry bush at the beginning of the video? Would you make a video about it, please? On How to grow and how to use please? Thank you. Impressive potatoes enjoy them
Have read many articles that say potatoes get scab with high nitrogen. Growing potatoes in hay doesn't get scab. Chicken compost and grass are both high in nitro. Love u two together.
It was so nice to pop over for a spot of socially distanced gardening ☺️ Very impressed with the potato haul there! Look forward to filming the mini- documentary later this week!
Jesper Andersen Hazards of the job. I pull out things daily without intending to. When you steer away from mono- culture, this is more likely to happen. Microbes are happy, though:)
Dear madame, first I was a little afraid to listen to your video,because your english is a little faster than mister Huws,but it works.I will tell that to my teacher.And the best is that I will have some vegtables I never thought that I will be able to grow. Its enough work with the fruits.But a few days bevore I went to my wild beans (wild because I sew (sew sew sew?☺️) them ,and thought that the little angles will to the rest.They did so much but they forgot to help the beans finding something where they can climb on.😁 So I dicedet to do it by myself.It was so amazing They grew so well I saw 6 beans,I so in love with them 😍,I just talked to them and told them that I'm happy ,the beans where happy too,that I was talking to them.Maybe I will film them,but I have so much to do,because I decidet to renovate a little .Its a lot to do all the time- but the weather means it good to me because its always raining cats and dogs. Whats a little irritating to me is that the english people are are able to do garden work without getting dirty,to me its not possible,I'm alway getting dirty- I will ask my english teacher if this belongs to the habit of english, or f its only not possible to me.Even when I'm watering its not possible without garden outfit.Believe me I just tried. So I will end here because its late. I'm so happy that I'm not afraid anymore to write in english in public.Thank you so much. Wish you the best Your's sincerley
Laughing! That was lovely. I'm a fellow getting dirty person. The word you were looking for is "sow," which, when it is used to mean "plant" sounds just like "sew" or "so." When it's used talk about a female pig, it sounds like "cow." Congratulations on learning our insane language! Having more or less mastered my own, I've never felt up to the challenge of approaching a second language. Keep sowing your wild beans!
*Never* feel afraid to write publicly - we can understand you perfectly! Well done for doing it! I can promise you that there is definitely one English person (me) that finds it impossible to stay clean when gardening (but hey, that's all part of the fun) 😁 Enjoy your day and enjoy your gardening, it really is an incredibly rewarding hobby 😀
Thank you for that video. I also use grass for my veg. I find it works well and after a few years it changes the clay soil to a nice mix of organic and mineral content.
We never harvest our potatoes until the tops of the plant are almost dead.. you still had a lot of growth that could have gone into your potato there... It was amazing to learn of you growing them this way and I enjoyed the video.. thanks
You've given me a great idea. I get to move to 26 acres in the country, which necessitates putting in a new garden and orchard. This year, I'm going to focus on getting the trees in and making compost for the new raised beds. You showed me how I might still grow a little something in this video. I can grow right in the hay and straw as they compost. Thank you, very much.
Having a go with grass cutting potatoes in pots this year. Planted up with compost first then mulched the top with cuttings and just added another good layer now the plants are looking established. Excited to see the results compared to last years just compost attempt. #newgardener!
If you are in UK or another country that is experiencing very heavy rainfall, be aware that your potatoes under grass cuttings may attract slugs because of the excess moisture.
This was so much fun to watch. You both looked like you were having fun. Nice potato harvest, gets me in the mood to go dig up my own. Thanks Liz, very much enjoyed. Take care.
Fabulous! I was planning on this method for my next planting of potatoes. So glad to see how well it worked. Great to see you and Huw in the garden together.
We are also trying a no dig method this year. We should know the results shortly, fingers crossed. It should definitely make the harvesting process easier!
That's a wonderful way to utilise the neighbour's waste problem and build new soil, while earthing up potatoes. The top growth looks magnificent. I'm sure they tasted superb. There's a wise axiom, "You're not gardening sustainably unless you are creating more soil than you are using up, every year." One thing I can never understand about British gardening gurus, even Monty and Charles, is why they always pull up their potatoes before they're even half grown. So many tiny spuds that never got the chance to reach their potential. All that top leaf and stem growth that should have been drawn down into the tubers! In Tasmania we are accustomed to seeing vast fields of spuds, all the haulms dead and shriveled on top. Then the fully grown potatoes are progressively harvested through the winter. Another harvesting method used by organic no-dig gardeners is to "bandicoot" potatoes. Leave the growing plant, but rummage around carefully beneath the mulch to feel for the biggest ones, whenever you need some to eat, then allow the smaller ones to keep growing. A bandicoot is a small native animal, a nocturnal marsupial that scratches holes in the ground to find edible roots and grubs.
Often the reason for harvesting early is to avoid blight. It's better to have some potatoes than have the crop ruined by blight. Often we harvest because we are too impatient to wait longer. I harvested these because I was using them for our veg boxes, but also because I needed the space for other crops. Early potatoes, which is what I mostly grow, are chosen because they need less time to reach an edible size, even if they are smaller. 🌻
I always does the same in frames that i can build like in four frames of hight. A little layer of Compost on the bottom directly in contact with the soil on the bottom and then only grassklippings om the top. Works really nice here in Sweden.
hello from new zealand..originally Yorkshire.....you inspire me Liz.....sitting in a wintry tunnel house dreaming of how my paddock will look if i dont stuff up!
With Liz and Huw you can really sense the passion and enthusiasm and how well they spark off each other. Such a nice change from 'scripted' TV stuff and yet one can also sense that Liz and Huw's practical and technical knowledge is top notch and always relevant to their audience as well. 05:30 'Grass and Pond weed' sounds more like an interesting fusion soup to me! I think harvesting potatoes like this is 'up there' with bursting bubble wrap as a brilliant therapeutic pastime (not work).
Looking good. I have not tried this method. Looks so easy....I normally wait until the plants die back to allow them to come to full size and they should store longer.
potatos in grass clippings works a treat, liz. i once did it when i was younger and worked in the parks. plenty clippings come straight from the bowling green. perfect. no weeds. all i did was a usual trench and laid 6 inches of clippings. laid the potatos and covered with another 6 inches of clippings finished with the trench backfilled. when they were lifted, there was no scab or slug holes. clean as you can get........................brian
I planted my potatoes into a no dig compost bed and mulched with grass clippings. The results were excellent. They are fun to harvest, a bit like collecting eggs. Great turn over for very little effort. And to think I was considering giving up growing veg due to arthritis. Apart from slow tomatoes, everything has grown in abundance. 😀🙏
I was very excited about this as I had a load of both old chicken bedding and new grass clippings. So a couple of weeks ago I planted a load of chitted potatoes. Unfortunately daily rain plus warm sunshine in between the rain showers has meant the grass clippings have turned into a hot slimy mess and the potatoes underneath have already gone rotten.
Sorry to read that the weather conspired against you. If you try again, make sure that you have mixed the bedding with the clippings to avoid it becoming an anaerobic mess.
Thanks Liz. I removed all the mess and started again, and I will certainly try again with a mixture - the new plantings are already coming through, and I will add the mulch more slowly. I used far too much to start. In the rest of the vegetable garden where I have build up the mulch slowly everything is flourishing. I have learned a lot from your channel and especially from your book Grounded.
I’m growing mine in a literal cardboard box. The water can seep out, as it needs to. The weight of the soil packs it into the shape and then I can just keep adding soil over the top and dump everything out onto a tarp once I’m done. Can’t wait until I can harvest. I also have a squash growing! Which is fantastic because I didn’t have any last year because it was too cool all year.
I used grass clippings on my potatoes this year after watching your video. It was all I could get my hands on as had moved house, chitted them late and lockdown. I have had a bumper crop, really pleased with the results, hardly any slug damage (despite most warnings about using grass). Thanks.
I used used goat bedding this year with compost. It worked wonders for potatoes. The weather got hot in July and the potatoes were done. I haven’t planted anything afterwards and tried a few yellow crookneck seeds but they’re growing slower. Indiana climate is different than yours for compost and mulching so experimenting with those few squash seed told me what I needed to know. I’m going to let that bed sit for a moment or try pea seeds instead when the weather starts cooling down a bit. July here got into the upper 90’s and was a combination of dry one week and super wet the next.
The yellow crookneck are doing fine and I planted some peas in a bare spot in that potato bed. They’ve sprouted and are growing. We’ll see. I’m doing a second seeding of carrots in the same carrot bed.
Super job Liz, nice to have company to harvest, and a great harvest ye had. Ive done grass cutting for some of mine and had great produce so far. Thanks for sharing.
I first heard of this method of potato harvesting in America they call it the Ruth Stout method. A generation ago, Ruth Stout was world famous as the "No-Work Gardener." Her secret was a layer of permanent straw or old-hay mulch over everything. She was best known for growing potatoes by "just throwing them" on the ground and covering them with hay.
Hi Roslyn, yes this is based on the Ruth Stout method, I was experimenting with using fresh grass clippings rather than dried hay - as you will find in my video of how to grow in grass clippings.
@@LizZorab not being critical of your method I love all your videos and you giving me an alternative method besides hay or straw. I Urban Garden in the city grass clippings is easier to get.
Congratulations on your potato harvest Liz. You and Hugh work so well together. It is mid to high 30,s here. We managed to have a 5 day holiday all inclusive in a nice hotel before too many tourists were let into Cyprus without testing. Spyros was able to get into the swimming pool courtesy of some very nice UN and British forces serving in Cyprus who were staying at the hotel with their families. I had a wonderful time and felt the benefit of being waited on . It was great. I felt so fortunate to be in a country where things were under control with covid 19. Unfortunately this last week has seen an increase in numbers and we now have to wear masks in shops etc once again. 300 euro fine for those not obeying. BRITISH tourists have been allowed to enter this week but have to be tested before they board the plane . My tomato plants did not produce much this year. Spyros 86 year old sister garden has been wonderful. Tomatoes squash black eyed beans aubergines and peppers to name just a few. She has a bore hole and electrically pumps the water to the garden. At the very bottom of the garden , which is part of the remaining forest area , turned into a river this spring with all the rain we had. I am sure you have mentioned it before but I have forgotten the source of your water for your gardens. Great to see you. Have a wonderful week xxxxx Margaret in Cyprus
I just hooked my potatoes up with grass clippings and gotta finish the beds. But I was unsure if I was doing the right thing bc of its ability to shade the sun. Worried about green potatoes. But now watching your video I see this is an excellent choice!
Great haul Liz. nice that huw was able to help you dig them out. Plenty of mulch there. I need to get my spuds out. they have had to go all growing season fending for themselves
We did ours on tonne bags (dumpy bags) and recycled water tanks, 8in of soil on the bottom & then covered 3x with 6in of lawn clippings, best tatties we've grown to date & our highest yield
I've grown in smaller potato sack Ann, but never thought of using larger dumpy bags, it would free up a lot of space on my plot by putting the dumpy bag where I can't grown anything else. Thanks so much for the tip. I love watching these two. Liz is my age and I also have health problems, so she's such an inspiration for me to just have a go.
Hi Liz, I am a new gardener trying to grow a few things in my backyard in Belle Glade FL. I’ve been encouraging my sister in Jamaica to do the same so she started her garden too. I told her to check out TH-cam which she did and found your video about the potatoes and sent me. I tried it and is very eager to see what potatoes are going to look like. I need to improve my garden so I’ll be looking out for your videos.
Very interesting. Thankyou. One year when I tried this I had a lot of slug damage but you have inspired me to try again. The 3 foot long Potato stem was interesting! I dislike tall haulms and so for early potatoes grow Swift. Especially useful in the polytunnel. Last tear I grew Vitabella. It had a heavy crop of good potatoes but with very tall stems. I could not get the seed this year because of lockdown but I will certainly grow them again despite the tallness!
I’ve never grown potatoes but would like to try. Earlier this year or late last year I heard mention that since potatoes are in the nightshade family like tomatoes, that potatoes are either determinate or indeterminate just like tomatoes. Have you heard that? Supposedly with the indeterminate varieties you can keep adding more & more soil/compost to the top & they’ll grow more potatoes further up. Good to see you & Huw together in the garden.
Julie B they’re easy, just stick em in and they grow, I promise you. I’ve never planted a garden let alone potatoes, and I’ve already had one excellent harvest of pink/reds and in the next few days two patches of blue potatoes. Growing stuff isn’t complicated.
I thought you had to wait until the potato leaves were wilting to allow for a larger potato but you're pulling them out when the leaves are fresh and green. I noticed a lot of them are tiny potatoes.
Hey Liz, just wanted to say that without a shadow of any doubt that you are *my fave* TH-camr! Keeps the vids coming! Big hello from the Channel Islands 👋🏼
Agreed! Being productive in the garden is both fun and inspiring. Every chance we get we try to encourage our family, friends and neighbors to give gardening a try!
I think it has been a good year for spuds here. The Charlottes have gone bonkers and we have huge tubers! I think they make really nice baking potatoes - just as well really! LOL! Planted in compost but grass clippings piled up and up and up! The wind blew a lot off, but got piled back on again! Nice video and thank you :D
Great video Liz and Huw , two things, I planted international Kidney seed potatoes and found on harvesting , several of the seed potatoes were hard and hadn't sprouted. Also I tried some potatoes in a container starting off in compost them mounding up with grass clippings and an occasional layer of compost, worked brilliantly had a very good harvest from the containers.
I don't get enough clippings to achieve such a depth, so for the last couple of years I have planted my potatoes in the soil with my long handled bulb planter (no bending) and mulched with clippings each week as I cut. Decided to do this because of anno domini, I find it too difficult to earth up now as is tradition. Works, well, do have to dig them up, but they are not deep and hardly any green ones with this method. Soil structure is helped as well. First saw Alys Fowler do this in her garden on tv.
I've done 5 of my potato bags this year with compost in the bottom topped up with layers of dry ish grass clippings until full. Normally I top them up with compost but if it works with grass clippings l'll save loads in bagged compost. They're not ready yet but I'm looking forward to comparing them to the ones I'm growing in beds (also munched with grass but onky a couple of inches).
Thanks Liz I I'll give it a try next year. My son in law wants to try . Your garden is beautiful. It's been very dry here this year. Thanks for the useful ideas.
What a great harvest!! Thank you for sharing!! I can’t wait to use this with my straw compost pile!!! I hate saying this but I couldn’t take my eyes off Mr. Richards. (Eye candy) (Sorry if that comes off as rude, not meant to be, it’s more a compliment!!)
Such a fun video. And a great idea. I grew potatoes in straw and soil blend this year. The potatoes were beautiful, but low yields. I think I was afraid to water enough because it might have made the hay moldy. It was a good experiment though. I enjoy your videos so much, thank you!
I tried grass clippings and straw this season. First earlies devoured by slugs. Just cropped the 2nd earlies and plenty of green potatoes but only a little slug damage. Main crop look healthy at present.
Hi Nigel, sounds like the 2nd earlies needed topping up with more clippings and straw to prevent the light getting to the tubers. I hope the main crop harvest is plentiful for you.
Great harvest there. I use grass as a mulch but not as heavy as this, usually a couple of inches on top of the soil and the spuds planted down into the bed. I'll have to try this out next year if I can get the grass early in the season, otherwise I may do it for the second cropping if I remember.
I had a small experiment this year with two large pots of first early potatoes. One pot had bought multipurpose compost and one had just sieved leafmould. Both with blood fish and bone fertilizer. Both pots produced well with the leafmould pot slightly better. I was surprised but very pleased and will be growing container spuds this way from now on. It makes a huge difference to the viability financially if I don’t have to buy new compost.
Great fun to watch! I had a go at this method this year and had a good crop but made a couple of mistakes. I was reluctant to just place the seed potatoes on the surface so planted them to the depth of my trowel and I should have continued to earth up with more grass clippings. I ended up with quite a few green potatoes and had to fork out some that had grown beneath the soil surface. Next year I will just leave the seed on the surface and apply much more material. I am interested to see what your succession crop will be. Thank you Liz and Huw I love your videos.
Hi Liz, I hope you are all well. That was an inspirational video and has given me a lot to think about for next years potatoes. I am thinking a kind of lasagne method with grass cuttings, old chicken bedding, clean straw, and old horse bedding - all things I have free access to, hmmmmmmmm, interesting :-)
Hi Helene, that would be the effects of winter on me, I really don't do well during the winter months and then feel better as the summer goes on. It's a cyclical thing and although I know I look pretty ropey in the winter, I know that I feel better and look better after lots of fresh air and sunshine. 😃
I would love to sow some shot bought sea potatoes (or ac potatoe) to have a great hall😂😂😂(the subtitles are hilarious) love this video of Liz and Hugh together and it would be fun to see them harvest potatoes again without social distacing😃 (who gets to steel away the most potatoes🤣)Actually, pumpkins and corn are good companion plants with potatoes. They enhance each others growth and help prevent diseases. So on top of the clippings and good soil, you did right by interplanting these crops😃👍🏻
You have to buy special seed potatoes for a good harvest so Liz. Heard you mention something about shop bought potatoes. I have used shop ones that have sprouted so those this mean I won't get nice potatoes. 🤔. Marion
If you buy organic potatoes in the shop, they are absolutely fine to use as seed potatoes, just as it's fine to use potatoes saved from last year's crop.
Thank you for sharing! We love growing and harvesting potatoes. It is such a versatile crop in term of how you can plant it. It lends itself to your own creativity. Which as gardeners we fully embrace. This year we are also trying a no dig method and we should know the results shortly. Our hybrid raised bed (predominately native clay soil with compost) method was productive however the harvest was hard on the back. Congrats on you no dig grass clipping method! We might try that next season. Cheers!
Will you use this actual bed for potatoes once again next year? Is the continuous addition of clippings an bedding enough to refuel the soil for next year's growth or would you recommend some kind of crop rotation?
If you've enjoyed this video, please share it with your friends and on social media! My next video will be homestead garden tour, so don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell to be notified when it's published.
Is that an elderberry bush at the beginning of the video? Would you make a video about it, please? On
How to grow and how to use please? Thank you.
Impressive potatoes enjoy them
Hi LiZ, were the potatoes F1?
If I am canning do I need to let potatoes cure? Tftv
AWFUL LITTLE POTATOES, WAS IT WORTH IT TO YOU? THANKS
Have read many articles that say potatoes get scab with high nitrogen. Growing potatoes in hay doesn't get scab. Chicken compost and grass are both high in nitro. Love u two together.
It was so nice to pop over for a spot of socially distanced gardening ☺️ Very impressed with the potato haul there! Look forward to filming the mini- documentary later this week!
Two of my favourite TH-camrs in one vid ☺️☺️☺️ What a treat!
great stufff Huw, but naught naughty for killing some sweet corn :D
Jesper Andersen Hazards of the job. I pull out things daily without intending to. When you steer away from mono- culture, this is more likely to happen. Microbes are happy, though:)
@@drewblack749 absolutely :D but we can still tease Huw with it :D
I loved them both. I wish I had a cool garden friend to hang with. Thank you both for helping me learn to gardening and both having awesome attitudes
Dear madame,
first I was a little afraid to listen to your video,because your english is a little faster than mister Huws,but it works.I will tell that to my teacher.And the best is that I will have some vegtables I never thought that I will be able to grow.
Its enough work with the fruits.But a few days bevore I went to my wild beans (wild because I sew (sew sew sew?☺️) them ,and thought that the little angles will to the rest.They did so much but they forgot to help the beans finding something where they can climb on.😁 So I dicedet to do it by myself.It was so amazing They grew so well I saw 6 beans,I so in love with them 😍,I just talked to them and told them that I'm happy ,the beans where happy too,that I was talking to them.Maybe I will film them,but I have so much to do,because I decidet to renovate a little .Its a lot to do all the time- but the weather means it good to me because its always raining cats and dogs.
Whats a little irritating to me is that the english people are are able to do garden work without getting dirty,to me its not possible,I'm alway getting dirty- I will ask my english teacher if this belongs to the habit of english, or f its only not possible to me.Even when I'm watering its not possible without garden outfit.Believe me I just tried.
So I will end here because its late.
I'm so happy that I'm not afraid anymore to write in english in public.Thank you so much.
Wish you the best
Your's sincerley
Laughing! That was lovely. I'm a fellow getting dirty person. The word you were looking for is "sow," which, when it is used to mean "plant" sounds just like "sew" or "so." When it's used talk about a female pig, it sounds like "cow." Congratulations on learning our insane language! Having more or less mastered my own, I've never felt up to the challenge of approaching a second language. Keep sowing your wild beans!
*Never* feel afraid to write publicly - we can understand you perfectly! Well done for doing it! I can promise you that there is definitely one English person (me) that finds it impossible to stay clean when gardening (but hey, that's all part of the fun) 😁 Enjoy your day and enjoy your gardening, it really is an incredibly rewarding hobby 😀
@@kobostinywings ❤
I am American, so we do not speak English either. 😊
It's always a special treat to get Huw AND Liz in a video together! Love it 🙌💚 I bet it was an amazing day.🌄
Both of our teachers are together ♥️♥️♥️ Good to see you both ♥️
Thank you Jetta!
My favourite combo. The TV networks should wake up & nab these two for a regular series we'd all watch. 😊
@@fzjohnson definitely! I would like to see them in TV ♥️
@@fzjohnson Excellent idea!
Huw looking at the camera after knocking over the sweetcorn made me laugh a lot!😂 Great video!
Glad you enjoyed!
Ha Huws face, like a naughty child 🤣🤣 Brilliant! Waiting for a dry day to lift my potatoes, fingers crossed.
Thank you for sharing. Lucky you get to hang out with huw.
Thank you for that video. I also use grass for my veg. I find it works well and after a few years it changes the clay soil to a nice mix of organic and mineral content.
What a great haul, I'd be very happy with that. Sound was fine. Huw's face when he squashed the sweet corn was priceless. Love you two❤🌽🥔
So nice to see you working together. Lovely.
What a great harvest! It's so cool to see Huw here. He seems so kind and helpful. I love a collab.
I just love the two of you working together... and your accents are so nice to listen too
We never harvest our potatoes until the tops of the plant are almost dead.. you still had a lot of growth that could have gone into your potato there... It was amazing to learn of you growing them this way and I enjoyed the video.. thanks
Hi Jackie, the potatoes flowered a couple of weeks before we harvested and I needed them for our weekly veg boxes, so up they came. 😃
You've given me a great idea. I get to move to 26 acres in the country, which necessitates putting in a new garden and orchard. This year, I'm going to focus on getting the trees in and making compost for the new raised beds. You showed me how I might still grow a little something in this video. I can grow right in the hay and straw as they compost. Thank you, very much.
I grew potatoes in 12 5 Gal. pots with bagged soil and harvested 44 lbs of potatoes. We have really been enjoying them.
Having a go with grass cutting potatoes in pots this year. Planted up with compost first then mulched the top with cuttings and just added another good layer now the plants are looking established. Excited to see the results compared to last years just compost attempt. #newgardener!
If you are in UK or another country that is experiencing very heavy rainfall, be aware that your potatoes under grass cuttings may attract slugs because of the excess moisture.
@@LizZorab thanks I will keep an eye out!
This was so much fun to watch. You both looked like you were having fun. Nice potato harvest, gets me in the mood to go dig up my own. Thanks Liz, very much enjoyed. Take care.
Fabulous! I was planning on this method for my next planting of potatoes. So glad to see how well it worked. Great to see you and Huw in the garden together.
We are also trying a no dig method this year. We should know the results shortly, fingers crossed. It should definitely make the harvesting process easier!
Huw's reaction to accidentally pulling a potato while liz was talking was hilarious. To add to it his reaction with the corn made me laugh.
Yes, his face was a picture!
That's a wonderful way to utilise the neighbour's waste problem and build new soil, while earthing up potatoes. The top growth looks magnificent. I'm sure they tasted superb.
There's a wise axiom, "You're not gardening sustainably unless you are creating more soil than you are using up, every year."
One thing I can never understand about British gardening gurus, even Monty and Charles, is why they always pull up their potatoes before they're even half grown. So many tiny spuds that never got the chance to reach their potential. All that top leaf and stem growth that should have been drawn down into the tubers! In Tasmania we are accustomed to seeing vast fields of spuds, all the haulms dead and shriveled on top. Then the fully grown potatoes are progressively harvested through the winter.
Another harvesting method used by organic no-dig gardeners is to "bandicoot" potatoes. Leave the growing plant, but rummage around carefully beneath the mulch to feel for the biggest ones, whenever you need some to eat, then allow the smaller ones to keep growing.
A bandicoot is a small native animal, a nocturnal marsupial that scratches holes in the ground to find edible roots and grubs.
Often the reason for harvesting early is to avoid blight. It's better to have some potatoes than have the crop ruined by blight. Often we harvest because we are too impatient to wait longer. I harvested these because I was using them for our veg boxes, but also because I needed the space for other crops. Early potatoes, which is what I mostly grow, are chosen because they need less time to reach an edible size, even if they are smaller. 🌻
I always does the same in frames that i can build like in four frames of hight. A little layer of Compost on the bottom directly in contact with the soil on the bottom and then only grassklippings om the top. Works really nice here in Sweden.
Holy cow. That is cool. People still kind of mow their lawns here so will try this next April. Love your videos and your English accents…
Awesome! Thank you!
hello from new zealand..originally Yorkshire.....you inspire me Liz.....sitting in a wintry tunnel house dreaming of how my paddock will look if i dont stuff up!
Thank you! I dream of living in New Zealand, it seems a much gentler (more sensible) place.
With Liz and Huw you can really sense the passion and enthusiasm and how well they spark off each other. Such a nice change from 'scripted' TV stuff and yet one can also sense that Liz and Huw's practical and technical knowledge is top notch and always relevant to their audience as well.
05:30 'Grass and Pond weed' sounds more like an interesting fusion soup to me!
I think harvesting potatoes like this is 'up there' with bursting bubble wrap as a brilliant therapeutic pastime (not work).
Thank you for your lovely feedback Andy. Yes harvesting spuds is up there with bubble wrap popping!
I love the friendship you two have developed, really comes across on the videos. I love both your channels, keep up the good work.
Thank you so much!
Great collaboration thanks Liz and Hugh
Looking good. I have not tried this method. Looks so easy....I normally wait until the plants die back to allow them to come to full size and they should store longer.
Great to see you going from strength to strength Liz.
potatos in grass clippings works a treat, liz. i once did it when i was younger and worked in the parks. plenty clippings come straight from the bowling green. perfect. no weeds. all i did was a usual trench and laid 6 inches of clippings. laid the potatos and covered with another 6 inches of clippings finished with the trench backfilled. when they were lifted, there was no scab or slug holes. clean as you can get........................brian
Yes I’ve been inspired by you to do this just in one small patch. The potatoes are bigger healthy and definitely tastier than in soil!!!!!
I planted my potatoes into a no dig compost bed and mulched with grass clippings. The results were excellent. They are fun to harvest, a bit like collecting eggs. Great turn over for very little effort. And to think I was considering giving up growing veg due to arthritis. Apart from slow tomatoes, everything has grown in abundance. 😀🙏
I was very excited about this as I had a load of both old chicken bedding and new grass clippings. So a couple of weeks ago I planted a load of chitted potatoes. Unfortunately daily rain plus warm sunshine in between the rain showers has meant the grass clippings have turned into a hot slimy mess and the potatoes underneath have already gone rotten.
Sorry to read that the weather conspired against you. If you try again, make sure that you have mixed the bedding with the clippings to avoid it becoming an anaerobic mess.
Thanks Liz. I removed all the mess and started again, and I will certainly try again with a mixture - the new plantings are already coming through, and I will add the mulch more slowly. I used far too much to start. In the rest of the vegetable garden where I have build up the mulch slowly everything is flourishing. I have learned a lot from your channel and especially from your book Grounded.
I’m growing mine in a literal cardboard box. The water can seep out, as it needs to. The weight of the soil packs it into the shape and then I can just keep adding soil over the top and dump everything out onto a tarp once I’m done. Can’t wait until I can harvest.
I also have a squash growing! Which is fantastic because I didn’t have any last year because it was too cool all year.
I used grass clippings on my potatoes this year after watching your video. It was all I could get my hands on as had moved house, chitted them late and lockdown. I have had a bumper crop, really pleased with the results, hardly any slug damage (despite most warnings about using grass). Thanks.
Oh my days. How delightful
I used used goat bedding this year with compost. It worked wonders for potatoes. The weather got hot in July and the potatoes were done. I haven’t planted anything afterwards and tried a few yellow crookneck seeds but they’re growing slower. Indiana climate is different than yours for compost and mulching so experimenting with those few squash seed told me what I needed to know. I’m going to let that bed sit for a moment or try pea seeds instead when the weather starts cooling down a bit. July here got into the upper 90’s and was a combination of dry one week and super wet the next.
The yellow crookneck are doing fine and I planted some peas in a bare spot in that potato bed. They’ve sprouted and are growing. We’ll see. I’m doing a second seeding of carrots in the same carrot bed.
Huws face when he saw that seed in his hand 🤣😂🤣😂 priceless
Clippings and poultry bedding is how we have always done it as that is what we have. Maybe not high production on our heavy clay but quite sufficient!
I'm certain you're going to end up with amazing soil after a few years of that treatment 😁
Cool potato reveal just dug mine up had a good harvest but your method looks so much better for your back as you said cheers 🍻
There is nothing social about social distancing !!! :) Long live humanity and contact. Long live love and nature xxxxx
Super job Liz, nice to have company to harvest, and a great harvest ye had. Ive done grass cutting for some of mine and had great produce so far. Thanks for sharing.
I first heard of this method of potato harvesting in America they call it the Ruth Stout method.
A generation ago, Ruth Stout was world famous as the "No-Work Gardener." Her secret was a layer of permanent straw or old-hay mulch over everything. She was best known for growing potatoes by "just throwing them" on the ground and covering them with hay.
Roslyn Williams, Ruth Stout method works really well! I grew up gardening using this method, I've got really heavy clay soil..blessings.
@@lindahipple4817 I will try it next year. I have been hearing great things about it.
Hi Roslyn, yes this is based on the Ruth Stout method, I was experimenting with using fresh grass clippings rather than dried hay - as you will find in my video of how to grow in grass clippings.
@@LizZorab not being critical of your method I love all your videos and you giving me an alternative method besides hay or straw. I Urban Garden in the city grass clippings is easier to get.
great harvest with two favorite gardeners!
Congratulations on your potato harvest Liz. You and Hugh work so well together.
It is mid to high 30,s here. We managed to have a 5 day holiday all inclusive in a nice hotel before too many tourists were let into Cyprus without testing. Spyros was able to get into the swimming pool courtesy of some very nice UN and British forces serving in Cyprus who were staying at the hotel with their families. I had a wonderful time and felt the benefit of being waited on . It was great. I felt so fortunate to be in a country where things were under control with covid 19. Unfortunately this last week has seen an increase in numbers and we now have to wear masks in shops etc once again. 300 euro fine for those not obeying. BRITISH tourists have been allowed to enter this week but have to be tested before they board the plane .
My tomato plants did not produce much this year. Spyros 86 year old sister garden has been wonderful. Tomatoes squash black eyed beans aubergines and peppers to name just a few. She has a bore hole and electrically pumps the water to the garden. At the very bottom of the garden , which is part of the remaining forest area , turned into a river this spring with all the rain we had. I am sure you have mentioned it before but I have forgotten the source of your water for your gardens.
Great to see you. Have a wonderful week xxxxx Margaret in Cyprus
I just hooked my potatoes up with grass clippings and gotta finish the beds. But I was unsure if I was doing the right thing bc of its ability to shade the sun. Worried about green potatoes. But now watching your video I see this is an excellent choice!
Great haul Liz. nice that huw was able to help you dig them out. Plenty of mulch there. I need to get my spuds out. they have had to go all growing season fending for themselves
Hi Tony, it was indeed a great haul, I was very pleased with the results and will certainly be doing that again next year!
We did ours on tonne bags (dumpy bags) and recycled water tanks, 8in of soil on the bottom & then covered 3x with 6in of lawn clippings, best tatties we've grown to date & our highest yield
I've grown in smaller potato sack Ann, but never thought of using larger dumpy bags, it would free up a lot of space on my plot by putting the dumpy bag where I can't grown anything else. Thanks so much for the tip. I love watching these two. Liz is my age and I also have health problems, so she's such an inspiration for me to just have a go.
Hi Liz, I am a new gardener trying to grow a few things in my backyard in Belle Glade FL.
I’ve been encouraging my sister in Jamaica to do the same so she started her garden too.
I told her to check out TH-cam which she did and found your video about the potatoes and sent me.
I tried it and is very eager to see what potatoes are going to look like.
I need to improve my garden so I’ll be looking out for your videos.
Very interesting. Thankyou. One year when I tried this I had a lot of slug damage but you have inspired me to try again. The 3 foot long Potato stem was interesting! I dislike tall haulms and so for early potatoes grow Swift. Especially useful in the polytunnel.
Last tear I grew Vitabella. It had a heavy crop of good potatoes but with very tall stems. I could not get the seed this year because of lockdown but I will certainly grow them again despite the tallness!
I’ve never grown potatoes but would like to try. Earlier this year or late last year I heard mention that since potatoes are in the nightshade family like tomatoes, that potatoes are either determinate or indeterminate just like tomatoes. Have you heard that? Supposedly with the indeterminate varieties you can keep adding more & more soil/compost to the top & they’ll grow more potatoes further up.
Good to see you & Huw together in the garden.
Julie B they’re easy, just stick em in and they grow, I promise you. I’ve never planted a garden let alone potatoes, and I’ve already had one excellent harvest of pink/reds and in the next few days two patches of blue potatoes. Growing stuff isn’t complicated.
The dream team 👍❤️ I would just love to transport you and Huw up to my garden for a day of teaching me your magic 😍😆
I thought you had to wait until the potato leaves were wilting to allow for a larger potato but you're pulling them out when the leaves are fresh and green. I noticed a lot of them are tiny potatoes.
Rock dust with a sulphur content should help against scab
Excellent healthy plants. Pity you didn't add a vertical tower (ring of wire) to force the potato plant to produce more
Hey Liz, just wanted to say that without a shadow of any doubt that you are *my fave* TH-camr! Keeps the vids coming! Big hello from the Channel Islands 👋🏼
Wow, thank you! That's so kind of you 😃
Liz, what a super harvest. I'm going to plant my potatoes in the grass and compost next spring. Thanks so much for the share! Cheers!
Hi Kate, thanks, I think my veg box customers enjoyed the potatoes!
@@LizZorab Hi Liz, wish we were closer, would love those veg boxes.
What a nice haul. Even better because you had company to delve for them. (Grin) Thanks for sharing. Stay safe.
What a harvest and very inspiring! Hoping my first planting of potatoes looks like yours ☺️
Agreed! Being productive in the garden is both fun and inspiring. Every chance we get we try to encourage our family, friends and neighbors to give gardening a try!
I think it has been a good year for spuds here. The Charlottes have gone bonkers and we have huge tubers! I think they make really nice baking potatoes - just as well really! LOL! Planted in compost but grass clippings piled up and up and up! The wind blew a lot off, but got piled back on again!
Nice video and thank you :D
Great video Liz and Huw , two things, I planted international Kidney seed potatoes and found on harvesting , several of the seed potatoes were hard and hadn't sprouted. Also I tried some potatoes in a container starting off in compost them mounding up with grass clippings and an occasional layer of compost, worked brilliantly had a very good harvest from the containers.
Wow some of them spuds 🥔 were huge . And your squash look fantastic Liz, the foliage looks really healthy x 🐝🐓🥔🦋
Two of my favorite gardeners!! 💞
I don't get enough clippings to achieve such a depth, so for the last couple of years I have planted my potatoes in the soil with my long handled bulb planter (no bending) and mulched with clippings each week as I cut. Decided to do this because of anno domini, I find it too difficult to earth up now as is tradition. Works, well, do have to dig them up, but they are not deep and hardly any green ones with this method. Soil structure is helped as well. First saw Alys Fowler do this in her garden on tv.
Great video, very humorous , thanks for sharing 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
I've done 5 of my potato bags this year with compost in the bottom topped up with layers of dry ish grass clippings until full. Normally I top them up with compost but if it works with grass clippings l'll save loads in bagged compost. They're not ready yet but I'm looking forward to comparing them to the ones I'm growing in beds (also munched with grass but onky a couple of inches).
Please let me know how they get on, I'd be really interested to learn the difference.
Thanks Liz I I'll give it a try next year. My son in law wants to try . Your garden is beautiful. It's been very dry here this year. Thanks for the useful ideas.
I really enjoy these kind of videos, I'm so happy I found you!!!
What a great harvest!! Thank you for sharing!! I can’t wait to use this with my straw compost pile!!! I hate saying this but I couldn’t take my eyes off Mr. Richards. (Eye candy) (Sorry if that comes off as rude, not meant to be, it’s more a compliment!!)
Jeanette, next week my video is the reveal of this year's no dig potatoes harvest - with a surprising result!
Great watching you & Huw garden together 😍 fab potato haul 👌
Love the joint videos with you and Huw.
Such a fun video. And a great idea. I grew potatoes in straw and soil blend this year. The potatoes were beautiful, but low yields. I think I was afraid to water enough because it might have made the hay moldy. It was a good experiment though. I enjoy your videos so much, thank you!
I tried grass clippings and straw this season. First earlies devoured by slugs. Just cropped the 2nd earlies and plenty of green potatoes but only a little slug damage. Main crop look healthy at present.
Hi Nigel, sounds like the 2nd earlies needed topping up with more clippings and straw to prevent the light getting to the tubers. I hope the main crop harvest is plentiful for you.
I hope ours don't get attacked by slugs. This is our first year for growing potatoes in hay/straw. Fingers crossed!
Ok, but who does gardening with a shirt and a watch xD Huw has so much class
Always nice to see you two together, enjoy the potatoes!
I was on my way back from filming for ITV in Hampshire so had limited clothes to garden in 😉
@@HuwRichards you were just right! you're such an inspiration, keep on!!!
Great harvest there. I use grass as a mulch but not as heavy as this, usually a couple of inches on top of the soil and the spuds planted down into the bed. I'll have to try this out next year if I can get the grass early in the season, otherwise I may do it for the second cropping if I remember.
I had a small experiment this year with two large pots of first early potatoes. One pot had bought multipurpose compost and one had just sieved leafmould. Both with blood fish and bone fertilizer. Both pots produced well with the leafmould pot slightly better. I was surprised but very pleased and will be growing container spuds this way from now on. It makes a huge difference to the viability financially if I don’t have to buy new compost.
I enjoyed watching, very entertaining, thanks for sharing❤️
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for dropping by 😃
Great fun to watch! I had a go at this method this year and had a good crop but made a couple of mistakes. I was reluctant to just place the seed potatoes on the surface so planted them to the depth of my trowel and I should have continued to earth up with more grass clippings. I ended up with quite a few green potatoes and had to fork out some that had grown beneath the soil surface. Next year I will just leave the seed on the surface and apply much more material. I am interested to see what your succession crop will be. Thank you Liz and Huw I love your videos.
Hi Liz, I hope you are all well. That was an inspirational video and has given me a lot to think about for next years potatoes. I am thinking a kind of lasagne method with grass cuttings, old chicken bedding, clean straw, and old horse bedding - all things I have free access to, hmmmmmmmm, interesting :-)
Great idea Liz, I will give it a go with grass clippings and compost.
Watched a video from a AG extension and they stated scab is from the soil being too sweet. Not acidic enough.
Will def be trying this, my goodness Liz you look 10 years younger than in your March video! Wow
Hi Helene, that would be the effects of winter on me, I really don't do well during the winter months and then feel better as the summer goes on. It's a cyclical thing and although I know I look pretty ropey in the winter, I know that I feel better and look better after lots of fresh air and sunshine. 😃
I would love to sow some shot bought sea potatoes (or ac potatoe) to have a great hall😂😂😂(the subtitles are hilarious) love this video of Liz and Hugh together and it would be fun to see them harvest potatoes again without social distacing😃 (who gets to steel away the most potatoes🤣)Actually, pumpkins and corn are good companion plants with potatoes. They enhance each others growth and help prevent diseases. So on top of the clippings and good soil, you did right by interplanting these crops😃👍🏻
Love the drone! plus the potatoes were amazing - what a great success Liz. Thanks you for the inspiration.
Yay! I love this!! You two are the best. We love u from Nova Scotia
You have to buy special seed potatoes for a good harvest so Liz. Heard you mention something about shop bought potatoes. I have used shop ones that have sprouted so those this mean I won't get nice potatoes. 🤔. Marion
If you buy organic potatoes in the shop, they are absolutely fine to use as seed potatoes, just as it's fine to use potatoes saved from last year's crop.
@@LizZorab ok Liz thank you 🙂
omg Huw killed a corn at 7:38 !! GET IM !!! considering he doesn't have a mic on he is still fairly easy to hear most of the time
A bit of careful editing with the sound levels made it not too bad in the end - hooray!
Nice to see the end result
well done Liz, always thinking outside the box. perfect result and one we can all try to copy x
Thank you Trevor!
Your doing so well - seems like green beans would do well this way also 🌼
Great fun and inspirational to watch.
Thank you for sharing! We love growing and harvesting potatoes. It is such a versatile crop in term of how you can plant it. It lends itself to your own creativity. Which as gardeners we fully embrace. This year we are also trying a no dig method and we should know the results shortly. Our hybrid raised bed (predominately native clay soil with compost) method was productive however the harvest was hard on the back. Congrats on you no dig grass clipping method! We might try that next season. Cheers!
Have tried the grass clippings method myself this year, hope to have as much success as you have clearly had with it! 🙂
I put potatoes in containers with compost under and over and got nothing…..I’m gonna try this on the ground!!
A great inspiration….. thank you😀
Will you use this actual bed for potatoes once again next year? Is the continuous addition of clippings an bedding enough to refuel the soil for next year's growth or would you recommend some kind of crop rotation?
A great collab 😄
really nice , this year is my first year gardening , next year I might do this as well
I really like this method. Just one more method to experiment with in the garden