Slug attacks have been underway all spring and summer so far, so we've moved all our herbs into containers. I'm going to blog a bit more about herbs soon, particularly our new Camellia Sinensis plants, an amazing plant that affects anyone and everyone living here in the UK as it's leaves are used to make tea.

But first, we've had our first batch of potatoes up from the grow sacks, and they taste great. So I though a quick bit blog entry on lovely potatoes.

Potatoes may be planted in the early spring, either in 'slug free' ground or as I do, in Growing sacks.

Potatoe plants will not begin to grow until the soil temperature has warmed up a bit. The soil needs to be evenly moist, but not wet or soggy. So if using containers use tall upright ones, and ensure they have good drainage on the bottom and about 1-2inches up the sides.

You can start them off with either seed potatoes from a local nursery or I have had success with supermarket ones. The difference is the Seed Potatoes are certified as disease free, however organic potatoes from seed or supermarket should both be of the same quality as there are no additives. Simply leave them to 'chit' which means grow young shoots out from the potatoe. To do this you can leave them in a tray, on a warm windowsill and moisten slightly once a week.

Once you get shoots 3-4 inches long place them in just enough soil to cover the shoots in the bottom of a potatoe sack. As they grow, keep topping the sack up to cover the shoots, once a week would be fine.

After three months you should have large bushes, sometimes with quite decorative white flowers. This is a sign your potaotes are growing beneath the soil.

We planted ours out in March and pulled them in the last week in June to get salad size new potatoes, however an extra couple of weeks would result in some larger examples for baking or mashing.

We're putting a second batch into seed now, hopefully to be ready just before December.

Again, the slugs love these, so we add a sprinkling of pet-safe slug pellets to the top of the soil once the plants are grown, this helps a little!

Give potatoes a go, they are easier than strawberrys or tomatoes, which are also quite easy!

I have just come up with a notable way of helping with our slug issues. Chickens! But more on this next time.