FORKING POTATOES

I don’t know why I do it, but I always use a fork to lift my potatoes and then inevitably the fork goes right through them as I dig down.  Spades can be just as bad, slicing through instead of pronging them.  There’s probably a special tool somewhere that will lift potatoes without damage.  If it removes every tuber (that’s the other problem - any left in will grow up as weeds through next year’s crops) I’ll get one.

I’ve grown lots of different sunflowers - some brown, some deep rusty red and a few (because there were only 6 seeds in the packet) pale lemon yellow.  I’ve also grown some lovely ones that look a bit like how I imagine an eclipse would be - dark centres surrounded by a striped lighter corona. But my favourites are the cheerful yellow ones with deep velvety middles.  Sunflowers and daffodils should be yellow, serving to nearly make up for any lack of sunshine.