[sunshineband]

I can understand anyone wanting to try and "cheat" the British winter by having something like home-grown new potatoes for Christmas but since when have new potatoes been the traditional accompaniment to Christmas dinner?

I'll get by somehow on old potatoes roasted until golden and crispy in the Turkey, Chicken or goose fat! 

Poor you 

[DD.]

since when have new potatoes been the traditional accompaniment to Christmas dinner?

About the same time it became tradition to dig parsnips in August.

Do keep up!

[harry]

May just be me, but I think it's a lot of money to be throwing at something that needs a careful eye keeping on it and has such variable and often very unsatisfactory results. You can buy a lot of taters for 8 quid.

It's not as though you get a huge crop even if the results are good.

I can wait a few months and put up with roast and mash for Christmas. I may try next year, but only by saving some of my early crop. My cash stays in my back pocket!

Its the fun of growing them not the money

[Aisling]

You may well be right Yorkie - being 'too late' is par for the course with me this year! (Put my garlic down in April instead of previous November and planted my sweetcorn out in August...!! I got a reasonable harvest of garlic - jury's still out on the sweetcorn.) So, true to form, the Christmas spuds got planted up on Friday, August 13th . Put 4 seed into each container - 3 Carlingford and one Red Duke of York. To frost-proof them a bit I sandwiched some bubblewrap between the two inside-out compost bags which make up each container. Then stood the whole lot onto wheeled plant movers - so I can run for cover when the weather turns too nasty 

As Harry said - it's the fun of growing them....

[harry]

I put mine in the plot, i'll cover them when it becomes cold

[evie2]

OH got our Christmas potatoes at a local garden centre last week and paid £2.00 for a bag of about 25

[DD.]

Maybe because it's getting a little on the late side for planting them?

[evie2]

We've planted ours in tubs that we can move around if needs be, but we also have a south facing garden 

If the potatoes don't come to much we'll know to plant earlier next year