Sometimes it starts with a spud. Growing your own food is one of those small,revolutionary acts that really adds up.
Potatoes are generous, forgiving, and surprising. Here’s how to grow them, whether you’ve got a garden, a balcony, or just a sunny corner.
Step 1: Start with Seed Potatoes
Time to Chit them
- Place seed potatoes in egg boxes or trays, rose end (the end with the most eyes) facing up.
- Leave them somewhere cool, bright and frost-free — a porch, windowsill or garage works well.
- After 4–6 weeks, you’ll have short, sturdy green shoots about 2–3cm long.
Top tip: Any big seed potatoes can be cut in half. You just need to make sure each half has at least 2 shoots – let the cut side harden overnight before planting.
Step 2: Plant Them Out
You can grow potatoes in the ground or in containers. Both work beautifully.
In the ground
Dig trenches about 15cm deep. Space trenches: 60cm apart for early potatoes & 75cm apart for maincrop. Make sure to plant each potato shoots-up. Cover with soil (a bit of compost mixed in never hurts).
In pots or bags
Choose a container at least 40cm deep, with drainage holes. Add a 15cm layer of compost.
Place seed potatoes shoots-up, about 25cm apart. Cover lightly with compost and water well. Pop them somewhere sunny.
Top tip: Old builders’ buckets, reusable grow bags, Old bags-for-life or large tubs are perfect.
Step 3: Hill Them Up (This Bit Feels Like Magic)
When shoots reach about 25cm tall, mound soil or compost up around the stems, covering most of the growth. Keep doing this as they grow.
Why? Because potatoes form along buried stems. More soil = more spuds.
Top tip: If it looks like you’re burying them alive, you’re probably doing it right.
Step 4: Water, Watch, Wait
- Keep soil consistently moist, especially in dry spells.
- Containers dry out faster – check every few days.
- Potatoes love the sun, but they don’t love soggy roots.
Top tip: Uneven watering can lead to cracked or misshapen potatoes. Still tasty, just a bit more “characterful”.
Step 5: Harvest (the best bit)
Earlies: Ready from late June or July. Gently rummage around the roots for new potatoes.
Maincrop: Harvest when foliage yellows and dies back, usually late summer into autumn.
Top tip: Harvest on a dry day and let potatoes dry briefly before storing. Keep them dark, cool and frost-free – never in the fridge.
A Few Extra Potato-Growing Wisdoms
- Keep developing tubers covered to stop them turning green.
- Rotate where you grow potatoes each year to keep soil healthy.
- Misshapen potatoes still count. Perfection is overrated.
Growing your own food connects you to the seasons, the soil, and the simple pleasure of cooking something you’ve watched grow from day one. Spuds with mud on them. Proper food. Fair effort. A quiet win that keeps on giving.
there’s a better way to live