Traditional Irish Potato Planting in Beara
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- 'Lockdown' in Spring, during the Covid 19 pandemic, is a perfect time to grow your own potatoes and other vegetables. And, there is no better, more environmentally-friendly and efficient way than to follow the old traditional methods as practiced by our ancestors for hundreds of years.
All you need is a spade, a bit of lawn and maybe a lesson or two ...
Go to the 10 minute mark on the video for the first steps (you could also look at my latest video, March 2021, • #Potato Planting ) for a less-expert but reasonably efficient way to dig and organically fertilise a ridge).
Above, you can follow local Beara man, Michael 'Murt' O'Sullivan, giving an expert demonstration of authentic, traditional ridge-making (these historically are called 'lazy-beds' but we are going to change that - lazy they ain't! One suggestion is that they be called Irish Smart-beds. Any opinion ...?).
Michael is a survivor of an extraordinary generation that kept alive the lore, craft - and indeed physical grace - of growing potatoes in the 19th C and before. No other record in existence is comparable.
Irish ridge-making was arguably the most efficient type of potato cultivation ever practiced in north-western Europe. Before the Great Irish Famine of 1845 '49, incredibly, up to 11 million acres were cultivated with this method. It was a superb example of a horticultural practice ideally suited to the climate and geology - and man and woman-power - of Ireland Yields of potatoes per acre using spades and ridges produced crops that have never been surpassed, even to this day (25 tons and more per acre!). And up to the coming of blight in 1845 we were the best-fed peasantry in the world. Uniquely, the Irish population grew by 400 per cent in the 100 years between the census of 1741 and that of 1841. What cannon-fodder we were for the Empire ...!
The spadesmen's intricate lore has been largely lost or difficult to access in old archives. However, I've pursued the subject for many years and was finally rewarded by finding in my neighbour Michael 'Murt', here in West Cork, all the skills, knowledge and expertise of his forebears. I was delighted and privileged that he chose to pass on to us what he knows. It is so typically modest of him that he finished up our last day's filming with: 'I never thought that anything I knew would be of interest to anyone.' Ni bheidh a leithéid arís ann.
There is here a huge and timely lesson for us all today: Listen to the wise and experienced and learn how to cultivate and grow in the most efficient and environmentally-friendly way. Then all else will follow; that the least amount of ground is used to produce sufficient (you can simultaneously plant onions, shallots and turnips on the edges and peas and beans amongst the potatoes) and healthy organic food to keep a family throughout the year.
Tip for maincrop: Buy potatoes off the shelves in the spring, cut the sprouting ends off the biggest of them, cauterise them with wood ash and store them exposed to the light. The sprouts will get green and strong (called 'chitting') and give you weeks of a start on the growing season (thus evading the blight season).
Fantastic. Michael is the man. You can see the way he handles his tool and the effort he saves with experience that I have wasted a lot of effort, energy and time sweating and toiling. I have been gutting the grass off before I dig. The grass turns to compost and the brilliance with the tool making is astonishing in that he made it seem so easy. I loved this and learnt a lot. "LAZY BEDS?" What a star Michael is. He is like Michael the angel. I can't wait till tomorrow.
Delighted you see the skills Michael has. I will pass on your comments to him
Great video. God bless our hard working ancestors.
Indeed!
Thank you very much for sharing this method. I have started a few rows cutting 2 feet strips of sod and flipping in one direction to create a bed. This way, working squares, seems much more fluid. leaving a bone to cut in is quite smart. Also we can work out both ways from the center and keep our muscles even. I see how he uses his thigh as leverage too. Thank you for teaching me these skills which seem almost lost I will build many gardens this way. I very much like this curved spade but have not seen anything like it in my country
I used have couple ridges in the back garden in Chicago area...nice to see the stalk grow. I do a couple pots now.
Well done Thomas - ridges across the ocean!
Great video showing how lazy "me back side" beds are made. I've seen a few different methods and this is the best, and good to have the information about placing the manure or seaweed down along the ground before turning the sods. I've always thrown a handful in along with the potato but this way is so much better. Great method and I formation. Can't wait to get digging tomorrow! Thank you both for making and sharing this video
Your comment absolutely gladdens my heart.
I have a lot more to say and do in this area over the next year. First part of mission is get rid of the Lazy Bed tag/slur. I’m going for the title - GrowSmartIreland on YT and Facebook too. Maybe have a look at my latest video last week From Lawn to Pots etc.
A Subscribe click would be useful.
Love to hear more about what you’re at and where. Best Jim
That was a very interesting to see how he made the spade and watching him do the ridges
when i was doing this for myself i placed my seed spud in a line in the grass & covered them as i worked & it worked well for me my way but i would not call it lazy it is still labour intensive & i got lovely spuds this way very satisfying
Container grown potatoes are 100 times easier and produce double the yield no reason to do it this way on a small scale
Thanks for that Joe. My Dad sometimes did it that way.
See my latest - From Lawn to Pots in 30 mins. Subscribe if you like - more coming.
@@davidbutlin2451
See my latest, David - From Lawn to Potato Ridge in 30 mins!
Couldn’t be much easier than that - and natural. I’m 74 and almost one-legged.
ubscibe if you wish - more coming
Nothing lazy about this. Great technique on spade and digging.
@@beyondorganicjim any more videos jim
Thanks Gemini. Very encouraging. Subscribe? More coming.
Tried yesterday. Too easy to be true. Thank you!
Great to see, I live in Harris, in the Western Isles where the scars of “lazy”beds are everywhere. Testament to the hard work and effort the folk had to put in to survive on the poor soil. Surely named by someone who never actually had to dig one. Feannagan is the gaelic, I’m guessing the Irish gaelic might be similar. I noticed in the opening credits a lovely shot of my neighbours beds and hay stacks, he still keeps them, scythed by hand another dying art. Moran taing!
Thanks for that. I'm trying to change the nomenclature from calling our ridges lazy beds. Listen to what Michael says. That's a coincidence re the images of your neighbour's ridges and haycocks (trams). I was brought up making hay like that. I scythe as well. And once demonstrated using a flail at MERL.
One of our old Irish names for the ridge method is iompú - turning.
Great vid. Thanks for the sharing..."Lazy BEDS me backside!"...
You and me both!
Brilliant! I would love to have 4-6 men turn my lawn into a garden ;)
a bit different than what we do down in kerry.but same idea.great video
Thats a lovely video lads.thank you for posting..
Glad you enjoyed it
TY for posting. very interesting
Excellent informative tutorial. At 60 I've followed this method and dug my first drill today. Very much looking forward to doing the next drill tomorrow. Fantastic. Many thanks.
Thanks, belatedly, Andrew. Hope you had great crops since.
Fascinating! I'm in Ontario Canada and if I'd seen one of these spades I'd have no idea what it was for. Of course where I live it is too dry to plant spuds on a mound but I can understand how it would work well in a wet country like Ireland. Very enlightening. I agree with you that 'lazy bed' is not an appropriate name for this garden method. I would like to see spuds growing on these bed as well I'd be interested to know how the mounds were managed the following year.
Thanks for the fulsome comments. We had drought conditions earlier this Spring. The ridges kept moist and he potatoes are doing really well. It is interesting too what happens to the ridges later. Later
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience! I will definitely try that method, as soon as I find a spade ;) thanks again
Gladdens my heart to hear that. Give time to choosing a spade - might find the right one second-hand, like I do.
love the history of the tool too :)
Thanks very much Jim for making this video. Really appreciate how you help explain the process. It's an amazing technique and you're video has helped me to teach other people to dig ridges. Cheers.
I’m a bit late in replying, sorry. Thanks for your comments - very gratifying.
Would like to hear more about your teaching ridge making. Ireland?
Saw the date and thought you were time travellers!
We're all time travellers.
Great video, i will try this next year.
great video, makes so much sense, i also know where i went wrong... i didnt leave a bone...
we always had a couple of those spades in the tool shed on the farm, always wondered how they didnt come apart in use so seing this makes more sense :D and we also had mattocks, actually used one in the last 6 months or so a few times, definatly want to try one of those spades now ive seen one used.
i chitted about 10 crates of spuds around october/november. it still amazes me that a potato has a top and a bottom and you want to remove exess shoots to promote stronger growth.
my great uncle called them potato ridges too, not lazy beds.
Thanks again Paul. Good luck with the spade. One day we'll see you demonstrating it against the loy at the National Ploughing Chanpionships!
The bone is a nuance of dear Michael's knowledge that I don't quite get. I must bring him over next week and show him all these comments - and learn some more from him.
GOOD WORK
Great visual aid! I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand a single word Michael said, other than ya-ya. But, I am a visual learner anyway, so it's all good.
I debated whether to use sub-titles or not. Listen closely - Michael has a beautiful blas.
Great tools!! Cheers from Australia!!🙂
Thanks for that all the way from the glorious Antipodes.
Hello, new friend. I also love planting potato's, but in planter boxes and containers as my yard is not very big. That was an interesting and informative video, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for that. I've experimented in the past with various containers. If you have a small space and little soil they work very well. In the 70's I had a lot of space and grew over 20 acres of potatoes, withe aid of beautiful soil and a tractor - of course.
Great video Jim, well done. Youz did get a rhythm going there... in-up-over!
I imagine people might take to singing to help with that rhythm, like sailors, etc. Did you hear tell of that from Michael?
And finally... what's the Irish for these ridges?
GRMA from a wee farm in Canada.
Thanks for your kind comments. The Gaeilge for ridges is - iomaire prátaí. Michael hasn’t a note in him. I’m always singing, but haven’t a particular one for planting spuds. You need to concentrate. But you could try - “The potatoes they are small over here …’ having the tae from the sweet gallon!
Hey, Jim. Was Nice To Meet U.
The old ways still the best
Definitely!
I’m in to the first 5 minutes. Very excited to see this but really hoping they’ll be able to step away from the,-is that road TRAFFIC or a waterfall I’m hearing?
Both - only place I could catch that man. I will edit it down later - when I retire!
What else can be planted this way? Anything in addition to potatoes?
Indeed anything.
I stick onion sets on the edge of the ridges and sometimes turnips and others. Tomatoes too. I once planted 2,000 on ridges.
I wonder what Michael would have made of no dig or growing taturs in containers?
Could it be the term "lazy" bed came from letting it compost in place? Because it certainly is not a lazy way of making a bed. God bless Shalom
Could be. Ireland and England have a complicated and fraught history.
What happens the 2nd year? Do you leave it level when you've done the harvest? There would be less of a sod structure then to turn and less green matter for food 🤔 Dig a new patch for the spuds and rotate crops? This year the weather has been slow to get going and hard frosts for the earlies that were planted on St Patricks day👍🏻
Great questions. I'll hopefully answer them in later diaries.
Great Answer ..il have to subscribe now 👍🏻
Are there craftsman who make these spades? It would be delightful to have one to work with. God bless Shalom
There must be. Begin the search. It would be easier in Ireland, where the past is closer!
Spear & Jackson do a 'Strapped Irish Spade 'which is similar.
This is very interesting to me I would like to ask if I may, the trenches they are going across the slope are they not? God bless Shalom
This one goes down the slope. Sometimes they were used to drain - othertimes to conserve moisture.
How do you avoid wire worms in turf?
I live in BC, Canada and in our conditions that last place one would plant a potato would be into newly turned turf. People here are taught the grass brings the wireworm. Alternatively, when I lived in Ontario on sandy soil we would make potatoes the first crop following sod as the hilling would aid in 'breaking' the grass. All about local conditions clearly.
Yes, maybe. Seaweed perhaps keeps wireworm at bay. Certainly it keeps slugs away. Not a single slug in my ridges!
i do not think this is lazy way to planting spuds is not a lazy job to do
I'm trying to change away from calling it the lazy-bed method. It was a smart, efficient method.
Can I buy a spade from u?
You've got a good eye for a spade. Watch out for them in country markets - that's where I got that one.
There’s a man in Donegal called Gerry Mallon that makes a similar tool. They call it a loy there and the heel is bigger for more leverage but the principle is the same.
Brilliant! I would love to have 4-6 men turn my lawn into a garden ;)
Must talk edible seaweeds again, soon.