We have planted a number of Charlotte potatoes and you can follow their progress here. We will take a picture of them every week from planting to harvest.

Week eighteen - The eating!

Adorned by only butter, salt and pepper they were never-the-less delicious.

Week seventeen - the uncovering

Success. A few weeks before they are due to be dug up but still there is a golden harvest lurking in the black loamy soil. A very pleasurable feeling indeed.

Week seventeen

My potato plants are completely dead and there are only a couple of weeds taking their place. I'm going to dig them up and see what we have.

Week sixteen

Only one stalk is left now. I would like to leave it for a little longer to see if it will survive before I dig them all up.

Week fifteen

One plant appears to be hanging on but the other is a goner.

Week fourteen

Disaster! Over a long hot weekend some creature (rabbit/fox) has appeared out of the long grass of the wildlife garden and destroyed my plants. Each plant has had it's main stem broken or chewed through and consequently is dying. I have tried to give them a good drink and some TLC in the hope that the rest of the plant may survive but things are looking fairly grim.

Week thirteen

No dramas or excitement this week. All is ticking along as you might expect.

Week twelve

After consulting with my network of potato experts within the museum and across Europe I am reassured that the discolouration is not the blight. All else seems to be in order.

Week eleven

Droopiness has gone but there are some worrying looking dark brown patches on the edges of the leaves. I'm hoping this is from them getting too dry but concerned it might be down to the dreaded blight or some other disease. I will check up.

Here's a close up of some of those brown patches.

In the axis of the branches the beginnings of infloresences (bunches of flowers) are just becoming visible.

Week ten

Rain was predicted over the weekend and never arrived. The result a slightly droopy looking pair of plants. Hopefully a session with the watering can has repaired the damage.

Week nine

It's been two weeks since I've been out in the garden myself (I've been on holiday) and I'm amazed at the height of the shoots, they are around 45cms high now. I think they have got so tall as they are competing with the grass around for light so I have tramped around the pot a little - I don't want them wasting their energy on growing tall when they could be using it to grow potatoes.

I also filled the pot to the brim with fresh compost, this is often called earthing up, this provides more space for the potatoes to grow in so will hopefully result in a greater yield.

Week eight

The shoots are now long and leggy and I will top up the compost in the pot soon to encourage more potatoes to grow underneath.

Week seven

Though I have been away from the museum these two haven't slowed in my absence.

Week six

Those tiny shoots of last week have made dramatic progress and so it seems has the grass land surrounding our pot!

Week five

The first leafy shoots have pushed their way into the rarefied air of the Natural History Museum's wildlife garden.

Week four

The potatoes are planted! I can feel the satisfaction already. Not much to see at the moment but soon they will be putting down roots and thrusting tender shoots up in search of the light. Watch this space...

Week three

I renegaded on my promise and left them a final week chitting. Here they are just a few days before going in the ground.

Week two

The chitting of our seed potatoes continues. Not much progress to be seen but they are going in the ground next week whatever happens.

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Week one

We have begun chitting our potatoes. That means encouraging their sprouts to grow before planting.

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If you would like to plant your own potatoes please follow this link for simple instructions.