“Potatoes fall into three categories as regards cropping. Early, Second Early, and Maincrop. If you want to be self sufficient, you probably want to grow all three. But for most purposes, Second Earlies can be ignored. And in a small garden, Maincrop potatoes occupy a disproportionate amount of space for a very long season. So most gardeners settle for a few Early ones. Does this begin to sound easier?” Mike Clark on which spuds to grow, when, and how!
“If I stopped a few random people in the street, and asked if they could name any varieties of potatoes, I bet I’d get a fair proportion of “Roast, Mash, Chips or (maybe) Duchesse”. I doubt if I’d get many Edzell Blues or Pentland Javelins.” Mike considers the humble spud – and tells you how you, too, can have fresh new potatoes at Christmas.
“Twelve years ago, I found a Jack Russell, late on a summer Sunday evening, quite unconcernedly chasing a paper bag along the middle of a public road, close by the car park of a popular local forest walk. Fortunately, there was little in the way of traffic. So little, in fact, that the car park was empty. Totally devoid of any potential owners. And the dog was collarless and completely anonymous.” How Mike met his four-legged friend Bisto.
“Droves of cattle once made the strength-sapping journey from the Highlands of Scotland over the Eastern Cairngorms to the markets of Crieff and Falkirk. The Highland weather was just too severe for over-wintering cattle.” Mike takes a hike along the old drovers’ paths around Loch Muick in the Eastern Cairngorms.
“Needless to say, like all Scotland’s native trees, birch in the wild has declined markedly over the last two centuries. Considered a “weed” among trees by commercial foresters, birch woodland has been felled and cleared to make way for coniferous timber crops. Yet it is still one our most abundant trees, relatively speaking. ” Mike waxes rhapsodic about a tree you can drink. Tree-hugging? More like tree-glugging!
“For some reason, many gardeners, whether novice or old hands, have a mental block when it comes to botanical (or Latin) names. Let me try to remove the mystery.” All those Latin names for plants explained at last!