digitS'
Garden Master
@ducks4you may have already planted her potatoes but she inspired me to do a little research. It was something of an archeological venture since the information on "lazy beds" that I posted on TEG about 10 years ago contained links that no longer go anywhere 
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There are other sources, however. Some academic files that would be well worth exploring but I will just use my common Wikipedia info to start: LAZY BEDS.
This Irish website and the museum picture provide some information LINK. I appreciate how they describe the term: "These ridges were called ‘lazy beds’ by contemporary writers because they were seen as a lazy method of farming. This was far from true. Each ridge had to be hand dug, using spades to turn over the heavy sods, and fertilizer in the form of manure or seaweed had to be gathered and then transported up to the mountain fields." The ditches could be used the following year for potato planting with the soil moved back off the bed.
This type of cultivation was not just used in Ireland but was common throughout the Celtic world, well before the potato arrived.
Steve
"To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime's experience... A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields - these are as much as a man can fully experience." ~ Patrick Kavanagh
.There are other sources, however. Some academic files that would be well worth exploring but I will just use my common Wikipedia info to start: LAZY BEDS.
This Irish website and the museum picture provide some information LINK. I appreciate how they describe the term: "These ridges were called ‘lazy beds’ by contemporary writers because they were seen as a lazy method of farming. This was far from true. Each ridge had to be hand dug, using spades to turn over the heavy sods, and fertilizer in the form of manure or seaweed had to be gathered and then transported up to the mountain fields." The ditches could be used the following year for potato planting with the soil moved back off the bed.
This type of cultivation was not just used in Ireland but was common throughout the Celtic world, well before the potato arrived.
Steve
"To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime's experience... A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields - these are as much as a man can fully experience." ~ Patrick Kavanagh
