In spite of coming all the way from South America, potatoes have made themselves truly at home on our dinner tables. As part of our staple diet, they provide us with many of the nutrients we need, particularly starch and vitamin C.

We've put together some tips to help you try your hand at one of the most rewarding crops to grow, so have a go! These perennials with edible 'tubers' (swollen, underground stems) are members of the same family as aubergines, capsicums, tomatoes, tobacco and chillies!

Their natural habitat is in the leaf mould of the jungle floor, growing in rich, damp, fertile, acid soil. They come in 3 main groups: 'first earlies', 'second earlies' and 'maincrop'. These categories tell you how long they need to grow. Expect first earlies to take about 9 weeks to mature, second earlies 10 weeks and maincrop varieties 12 weeks.

You can buy 'seed potatoes' now at the garden centre - they are actually small potatoes, about the size of a hen's egg, which have been cultivated above a certain altitude to avoid aphids which transmit viruses, and are certified disease free.

First earlies will give you new potatoes at a time when they're at their most expensive in the shops - you'll avoid the blight season, as well as the worst of the slugs.

Recommended varieties include Pentland Javelin, a heavy cropper with white, waxy flesh, or Red Duke of York for superb roasties! Try a few 'second earlies' too, to extend the cropping time: Kestrel will give a high yield, disease resistance and excellent flavour, or try Nadine for a bumper crop with a delicious taste.

Finish off with a row of 'maincrop', giving you plenty of spuds for the winter - we recommend Maris Piper for the best chips, King Edward for high quality, or Valor for high resistance to pests and diseases. Charlotte is an excellent variety for salad potatoes, and Rocket does well grown as a miniature crop in a dustbin for Christmas day!

Make some holes in the bottom, and start off with a layer of compost and a couple of seed potatoes. Keep covering with compost as the leaves appear, until the soil is up to the top. Store, or 'chit' your seed potatoes, in single layers with the pointed end down, on trays or benches in low light, in a frost-free place. Darkness or too much heat will force them to produce long, gangly shoots which will break off when planting - ideally the 'sprouts', which are produced mainly from the end, will be short and green.

Originating from the southern hemisphere, the leafy growth of potatoes (or 'haulm') is very vulnerable to frost. Frost damage will halt growth, so seed potatoes should be planted out at the end of April, so that the leaves come through after the danger has passed. Alternatively, cover the young plants with cloches.

Dig over the planting area well, and incorporate as much manure or compost as you can. Create trenches about 12cm deep and 60cm - 75cm apart, and sprinkle some bonemeal onto the soil you've dug out. Plant your potatoes the same way up, 30cm apart for earlies, or 45cm for maincrop, in late April - don't use any rotten ones! Cover with 5cm of soil, and 'earth up' as the tops appear, which means raking the soil on either side of the plants up and around the haulms. Do this first thing in the morning, when they stand to attention! This protects the growing tubers from light (which turns them green and makes them bitter and poisonous) and gives them plenty of room to grow.

Keep free of weeds - potatoes don't like competition - and water in dry weather. Harvest earlies just as the flowers appear, and the others after flowering. You can cut off the haulms of maincrop potatoes a couple of weeks before digging them up, but don't leave tubers in the ground too long in the autumn, or you may end up feeding the slugs instead of the family!

Dig carefully and eat any which have been speared by the garden fork straight away. Maincrop potatoes will store for weeks in darkness, in a container, positioned in a cool, well ventilated place.

Potato blight is often a problem in South Wales, because of our damp climate - this is the disease which caused the potato famine in Ireland.

Watch out for yellow or brown patches on leaves, and spray the foliage thoroughly once a fortnight with Bordeaux mixture to prevent the spores from developing.

Rotate potato crops around the vegetable patch year by year to avoid a build up of viral diseases - brassicas (cabbage family) love to follow potatoes and soak up all that manure you put down.

Finally, eat and enjoy!