Harvesting Potatoes from My Small 15m² Kitchen Garden 🥔 | Charlotte & King Edward Harvest
Hello everyone, and welcome back. Today I finally lifted the potatoes out of the patch in my small kitchen garden, something that was at least a month overdue. The last couple of weeks have been so busy that it kept slipping, and honestly the foliage had grown so big that I was starting to wonder whether any of the energy had gone into the crop at all. It was a warm, overcast Thursday evening here in West Sussex, and I came out still in the clothes I had been wearing all day.
Twenty seed potatoes, two varieties
This is the first year I have been able to grow this many potatoes. I planted around twenty seed potatoes in two varieties, with Charlotte in the front row and King Edward at the back. Until now I had only ever grown potatoes in pots, and the yield from pots is always smaller because the spuds simply do not have the room to develop.
Before lifting anything I cut the foliage back, because it was ridiculous. One of the King Edward stems was so long that I could barely hold it up for the camera. When I grew potatoes in pots the stems never got anywhere near that size, so I really did not know what to expect underneath. I was hopeful, but I was also being realistic. We had very little rain over the summer, and although I watered, tap water is never quite the same as proper rainfall.
The first section came up empty
I started pulling the stems out before I realised the camera was off, and the first section I cleared came out with no potatoes on the roots at all. That was a horrible moment. I stood there quietly asking the soil to please have something in it.
Then the first one appeared, and after that they kept coming. They were deeper than I expected. There were worms, there was one enormous slug that I would rather not talk about, and slowly the boxes started to fill. Some of the Charlottes were a really nice size, easily twice what I ever managed in pots. Maybe I was doing something wrong all those years, or maybe space really is the whole answer.
Something has been digging in my veg patch
Part way through I found a potato that had clearly been nibbled, and it had been sitting fully under the soil rather than exposed on the surface. Then, as I dug further along, I found a hole. Not a small gap in the soil, but a proper tunnel running underneath the potatoes, with loose ground heaped up at the back of the bed.
I could not find an exit hole on the other side, so I have no idea how it is getting in. I am not going to say out loud what I think it is, but you can probably guess. Whatever it is, it has been feeding on the potatoes and very likely helping itself to other crops too. First the raspberries, now this. I am starting to think that patch is cursed.
Charlotte won, King Edward disappointed
When it came to size, Charlotte was the clear winner. The King Edwards were tiny. There were a few of a normal, expected size, but the majority were small or very small, which surprised me because I had assumed King Edward would be the bigger of the two.
I do wonder whether they simply needed longer in the ground, or whether the lack of rain stopped them developing. Either way I did not want to leave them in there any longer. The patch had already become an eyesore, and now that I know something is tunnelling under it and feeding off my crops, waiting felt like the worse option.
I also noticed spots on some of the skins, on both varieties, with the surface looking as if it were peeling or blistering. It was only on the plants nearer the edge of the border, and the ones from the middle looked fine. I have never seen it before, so if you know what it is, and whether they are still safe to eat, please tell me in the comments.
A summer with almost no rain
The forecast had promised rain from Monday onwards, and by Thursday evening we had had one short burst. It was good, solid rain while it lasted, but far too brief for how dry the ground is everywhere. It is a ridiculous thing to complain about in this country, where rain is usually the one thing we have in excess, but this year it has genuinely reached the point of desperation for gardens and growers.
The dahlias have suffered too, in their own way. They have shot up so tall that they cannot hold their own weight and keep collapsing. La Belle Epoque grew so massive that it was covering the garage window, casting shade over the other dahlias and the roses in that border. The stems were thick as anything, and when they divided the side branches were so heavy with flower heads that they were squashing and tearing the plants around them. One morning I decided it had to go. I will keep the tubers, but I may need to lift that one out of the border altogether.
Digging as a way to switch off
This is probably the strangest outfit anyone has ever harvested potatoes in. My husband and I had a very busy day with important meetings, and my head was buzzing far too much. I just needed to put my hands in the soil. I changed my shoes and came out, and that was the extent of my preparation.
He takes our daughter for a walk when he needs to let the tension go. I come into the garden and either chop things down or dig. It is my best remedy, and by the time the boxes were full I already felt much better. Tell me in the comments if you do the same thing when you are stressed.
In this video
- Lifting around 20 seed potatoes, a month later than planned
- Charlotte in the front row, King Edward at the back
- The first section coming up with no potatoes at all
- A tunnel dug underneath the bed by an uninvited visitor
- Charlotte sizing up well, King Edward mostly tiny
- Odd blistered spots on some of the skins
- Why chopping and digging is my favourite way to unwind
So that is my potato harvest of 2026, Charlotte and King Edward, and the biggest crop of potatoes I have managed since I started growing. It is the first time they have had a proper border rather than a pot, so a better yield was expected, but I still did not know how it would turn out. I am very happy with the Charlottes, and I will grow them again. King Edward I am less sure about, so next year I may pair the Charlottes with a different second variety. Do let me know which potatoes you grew this season and how they did for you, because I would love some recommendations.
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