The Great Potato Challenge

Olivia is a talented young lady, she shows a keen interest in a variety of subjects and follows them with gusto. Like many achievers, Olivia is not blessed with patience, she's a typical child of the noughties, now, now, now..
I issued the potato challenge. Mostly because I really wanted to grow my own potatoes but also because working with nature can only be a good thing.
We each have two potatoes, the eyes had started to grow and I followed Jamie's instructions as well as conveying them to Olivia. A little soil in the bottom of a bucket (Grandpa drilled drainage holes) the two potatoes and some more soil to slightly cover. It should be understood that I am no gardener so this year has been something miraculous for me, growing herbs and veg and only the first batch of coriander died. I explained that this is an excercise in patience as I think we'll only have potatoes around the end of January. I have never seen anything grow as quickly as my potato plants, we're talking 2 or 3 centimetres a day. Yesterday a friend who has grown his own spuds for many years told me not to plant Mediterranean potatoes as they may be sterile. Oh No! However, this morning I saw the first purple flower on one of the plants so I'm quite optimistic.
In a perfect world, I'd meditate every morning, do about a half hour of Yoga followed by some Belly Dancing to really get the day off to a good start. Not happening. But this is what I do. After listening to the seven o'clock news I turn off the radio and turn on a CD, something meditative to listen to while I make work breakfast and lunch. Once that's done and I've cleaned the kitchen I go into the garden, some days perhaps to hang a load of washing, others to tend the estate. It should be noted that the "Estate" is small. I water the potplants, check for nasties that may be eating our produce and pick the occasional strawberry. This is a wonderful way to connect with nature, I'm getting my allocated 10 minutes of vitamin D, talking to the trees and birds and getting an all round good start to the day.
Of course I don't have small children to contend with, that makes a difference.
So, if your world needs some "me" time, take the potato challenge and get to know nature. To those of you who've been doing this for years, why didn't you share your secret?
I'll let you know in January whose crop has the most potatoes, mine or Olivia's. As I'm not the perfect Granny, I hope it's mine.