The Eyes have it............

Revealed! ...... The latest “must have” interior design feature that no stylish home should be without!

A challenging installation of chitting potatoes, tastefully arranged in front of the lounge window. Next season all the Kensington and Chelsea glitterati will be doing it….though doubtless they will be using Jimmy Choo boxes instead of Reebok Classics.

Thompson & Morgan finally came through and delivered, albeit with a couple of substitutes for the varieties I originally ordered. Instead of the Sarpo Mira main crop I grew last year - and which yielded a truly huge crop of large baking sized potatoes, whilst completely living up to their billing for being blight, eelworm and slug resistant - I now have a new sister-strain called Sarpo Axona. These apparently have all the same growing properties, but are slightly creamier in flavour, and a more normal shape than the Miras, which were in truth, very long and flat looking. Should be a good alternative.

Of my preferred earlies, Adorra had also sold out, so I now have Accent, and Vale’s Emerald. The plan is to plant one variety about 2-3 weeks later than the other, and try to stretch the new potato season out a bit. Last year I followed the old maxim of putting my spuds in on St. Patrick’s day…only to have to rush down to the site one evening in May to protect the emerging plants with fleece against a late frost. This year I’ll wait until the middle of April, and see how that works out..... Given the lateness of my delivery, and the stubborn reluctance of the seed tubers to do any sprouting yet, I think this is no bad thing.