Potato growing advice...?

I have been 'earthing up' my potatoes for the last fortnight and am wondering how much longer I should keep this up? They keep on growing - which is a good thing - and I'm going to end up with a mountain if I keep heaping earth on them... Advice please!

In the meantime the sunny potato patch is proving to be a popular spot with Nini mouse and her baby..


Also, I have finally got a Cottontails Baby Facebook page up and running. It's a bit more interactive for competitions and things.

A matter of trust..

He says he's only here to help and promises not to snaffle any veg...


Hmmm. I'm not sure.

For those who would like to take the risk, we have plenty more gardener rabbits eager to, erm, help...

Mouse problem spreads to the US

I wrote yesterday about the latest mouse infestation at Cottontails and reports are now coming in of a similar problem unfolding in the US...

One of my lovely regular customers, Jessica, sent me an email to tell me about the problems they are currently experiencing in their New York apartment:

"In our household, in total, we've on hand all the Lila(s) acquired from Cottontails :-) 8 rattle Lila (3 retired/worn out, 2 in rotation, 2 new), 2 Medium Lila (1 retired, 1 new, 1 in use) 2 Large Lila (1 retired, 1 in use) Hubby says we are infested by pink mice! :-))))

And as four more Lila mice head off for New York this afternoon, I'm afraid the problem is only going to get more serious...

Mouse problem

Oh dear, we seem to have a bit of a mouse problem in the kitchen this week. I even caught them breakfasting on the quaker oats this morning...

But happily I've managed to catch most of them - humanely of course - and they are now available for re-homing on the Cottontails website. Please visit if you are able to offer a loving home to a Maileg mouse.

Cottontails Kitchen Garden - growing mint

Did you know you can grow mint just by picking a sprig and putting it in a glass of water? I vaguely remembered reading something about it and thought I'd have a go, and so far the signs are good.

I pilfered a sprig of mint from my dad's garden last time I went over and within about 10 days look what had happened:


So this weekend I planted it up into a pot of compost, gave it a good feed and water...



...then popped the pot into the ground.



Apparently mint is so voracious that it's best to do it this way - if you plant it directly into the ground it will have taken over your garden within the week (or so you would think given the number of warnings I have had from more experienced gardeners. Just mention mint and there is much sucking in of breath and shaking of heads!)

So finger's crossed for a thriving mint plant in the near future!

Meanwhile it was time to try out another Cottontails garden tool, and this time I picked one of our watering cans.


The Little Pals green watering can (£8) is one of three children's watering cans available at Cottontails and a very nice little thing it is too! Small enough to be very quick to fill and light to lift when full, but holds enough water to be worthwhile.


I also discovered it is quite handy for doing the watering in our little plastic mini greenhouse thingy (you know, one of those sets of shelves covered with some plastic) - there is not much space between the shelves and it's a bit of a challenge to squeeze in a full size watering can so this is just the job.