Episode 677: Autumn Abundance — Compost, Maincrop Potatoes and Crispy Potato Cakes

The end of September can look like the garden is winding down, but this week it felt more like a fresh beginning. Moist weather brought a burst of growth to the kitchen garden, the allotment continued to provide generous harvests, and autumn sowings offered the promise of food through winter.

Turning a Tangle into Compost

The grass, shrubs and an unruly mile-a-minute climber all needed attention. The resulting heap of green material quickly filled the HotBin composter, so the older Dalek-style bins had to earn their keep.

Emptying one of them revealed useful, well-rotted compost and an encouraging update on an old elm stump. Since spring, the compost bin has stood directly over the stump. Heat, darkness and moisture have weakened it, while attempted regrowth inside the bin has failed. The stump has not disappeared yet, but it is soft, rotten and breaking away. It is a slow solution, but one that turns garden waste into compost at the same time.

Growing Does Not Stop with Summer

Corn salad and spinach have been planted out for winter, while spring onions, lettuce and radish are germinating well. This is the “second spring”: a useful window for sowing hardy crops, filling gaps and setting up a longer harvest season.

A Maincrop Potato Lesson

At the allotment, tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, apples and broccoli were still coming in, but the main event was the potato harvest. Maris Piper produced fewer tubers than hoped, although they were a good size. King Edward started with many small potatoes, then delivered much larger tubers in one noticeably damper area.

That contrast is a reminder that mulch helps conserve moisture but cannot create it. Potatoes benefit from steady moisture while their tubers are swelling. In dry seasons, it pays to check beneath the mulch and give the soil a deep soak when needed.

The harvest is now curing in the greenhouse before storage in the garage. Damaged potatoes will be used first; sound, dry tubers will be kept somewhere cool, dark and frost-free.

A Garden Works as a Cycle

This week’s jobs were all connected. Prunings became compost material. Compost improved the beds. Better soil will hold more moisture and support future crops. Meanwhile, autumn sowings keep the kitchen supplied after summer has passed.

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The post Episode 677: Autumn Abundance — Compost, Maincrop Potatoes and Crispy Potato Cakes appeared first on The Veg Grower Podcast.



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