Potato-growing. A bed about six feet wide, on which the potatoes are laid, with a trench on each side, two or three feet wide, from which earth is taken to cover the potatoes. Also attrib.
1743. R. Maxwell, Sel. Trans., 159. In ley Ground they [Potatoes] are commonly, in Scotland, planted in Lazy-beds, as they are called.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 300. Mr. Herbert has cultivated potatoes in the common lazy-bed method.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 193. The old fresh lazy-bed mode … seems to have taken great root in Devonshire.
1846. McCulloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 311. Potatoes … are mostly planted in the Irish fashion, or in lazy beds.
1860. Delamer, Kitch. Gard., 24. The lazy-bed system may be advantageously followed on stiff retentive clays.
