Conway Mill Trust

Lazy Beds, a method of growing potatoes although not widely used, can still be seen in rural parts of Connemara and Antrim. Potatoes thrive on seaweed and manure.  These were spread and then covered on both sides with sod and the potatoes planted in these ridges.  This method provided 3 times higher yield than in horse drawn ridges.  Before the famines in the 1800’s one acre could produce 6 tons of potatoes and feed a family for almost a year as compared to England where 20 acres were needed.  By the 1830’s, one-third or 3 million people relied on the potato for 90% of their intake. Padraig Pearse on the eve of his execution in 1916 wrote of the lazy beds: “Some quiet hill where mountain man has sown and soon would reap near to the gates of heaven.”