Potato dilemma

My potatoes I already planted are doing ok. In fact they are up before Bernie's. However I think his system of mounds and trenches means they are planted deeper and so will be more protected from frosts and blight.

It seems odd to think of frosts when the thermometer has consistently hit 20 degrees over the last fortnight but it is important to remember that frost hit as late as early may last year.

I still have two more sets of seed potatoes to plant. The rattes and some free charlottes that came as part of a patio growing set. Not wanting to muddy my lovely new patio I will experiment with the set on the plot and I will plant the rattes using Bernie's method too. I looked this up to make sure I do it right but, oddly, there isn't much information on it in books or online.

I consulted a number of books and websites all with limited success. The best I found was http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html which provided the following great drawing:

There seems to be a difference of opinion on how to do it and both make sense. Plant the seed potatoes at the bottom of the trench and use the mounds to earth up OR to plant the potatoes into the mound to allow them the mound to grow in and when watering allow the water to get to the roots.

As it was I did neither and just found some spare patches by the other potatoes...