No, not a pest or disease!

While earthing up potatoes this morning - no easy task on my granite-ridden soil! - my mind turned, as it always does when I'm doing this task, to my old Irish friend Pádraig, long since gardening in the allotment above. He always used to refer to the job as "mowding" (moulding). I always assumed that this term did not refer to mioulding in the sense of forming a shaped ridge. Rather mould in the older English sense of earth. In which case Pádraig's "mowding" was my "earthing".

Anyone in Ireland able to confirm or refute my interpretation?

" I always assumed that this term did not refer to moulding in the sense of forming a shaped ridge. Rather mould in the older English sense of earth. In which case Pádraig's "mowding" was my "earthing".

The bit that does (most) of the work by turning the soil over on a plough is called the mould/mold board. The stuff you pick up. . . .Cheers, Tony.

Better than belonging to the Open University.

An Irish answer from the past!

A book published in Dublin in 1831. The link is to a page on potatoes -

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Fvk- ... es&f=false