The Veg Grower Podcast

Autumn is full of useful materials that gardeners can turn into next year’s fertility. In episode 679 of The Veg Grower Podcast, Richard makes the most of fallen leaves, prepares to store wood ash safely and shares practical ways to keep growing costs under control.

Turn Fallen Leaves into Leaf Mould

At the allotment, the leaf mould bins are beginning to fill. A simple frame made from four posts and chicken wire is enough to hold leaves while allowing the airflow that supports slow fungal decomposition.

Leaves gathered with permission from gardens and recreation grounds can become a dark, crumbly soil improver over one or two years. Woodland leaves are best left in place, where they shelter wildlife and feed the woodland ecosystem.

Although the heap shrinks considerably, the finished leaf mould is valuable. Used as a mulch, it adds organic matter, protects the soil surface and helps the ground retain moisture. It is also a welcome alternative when bought-in compost is expensive.

Store Wood Ash Safely

Clean ash from untreated wood can be useful in the garden when used sparingly. It contains potassium and may benefit suitable flowering and fruiting crops. Do not use ash from coal, painted or treated timber, or manufactured fire logs.

Because ash can hide hot embers, transfer it to a lidded metal container on a non-combustible surface and leave it until completely cold. Keep stored ash dry, and avoid applying it around acid-loving plants.

Save Compost with Plug Trays

Pricking out seedlings is a regular job in the kitchen garden. Starting seeds in plug trays can reduce the amount of compost used while giving each seedling its own root space. It also lets the grower provide reliable germination conditions before young plants move outside.

Plant Spring Flowers for Pollinators

Daffodils and tulips are not edible crops, but early flowers can help pollinators. New bulbs create a strong display in pots, while previous years’ bulbs can be moved into grass, where they may naturalise and multiply.

Six More Ways to Cut Growing Costs

Save fully mature seed from healthy, open-pollinated plants.

Reuse clean old net curtains as supported crop covers, taking care not to trap wildlife.

Compost garden and suitable kitchen waste.

Clean, sharpen and oil tools to extend their working life.

Collect rainwater where permitted and mulch to reduce water loss.

Check existing supplies and swap surplus seed or plants before buying more.

This Week’s Harvest and Sowings

At the allotment, the harvest included cabbage, courgettes and marrow. In the kitchen garden, tomatoes, salad leaves and herbs were still producing. Broad beans, peas and dwarf kale for baby leaves were among the week’s sowings.

The message from this week’s episode is simple: look closely at what is already available. Fallen leaves, fireplace ash, saved seed and reused materials can all play a part in a productive garden—and each small saving adds up.

October may bring shorter days and cooler temperatures, but there is still plenty to do in the productive garden. In this week’s episode, I’m sowing crops for winter and next spring, preparing allotment beds, making a warming marrow curry and checking in on Alysda and Lisa’s new vegetable garden.

Seeds to Sow in October

Rather than choosing a single seed of the month, I’m looking at everything I plan to sow. Broad beans and peas can be started for overwintering in a suitable, sheltered position. Onion sets offer a quick route to next year’s crop, while onions from seed provide more choice for growers who can give them an early start.

Winter salad leaves and corn salad will keep small harvests coming through the colder months. Chillies will be started under heat and grow lights because they benefit from a long season. I’m also thinking ahead to companion flowers and spring bulbs that will provide colour and food for pollinators.

The seeds mentioned in this episode are available from Premier Seeds Direct.

Preparing the Allotment

The garlic has sprouted well, a marrow has been harvested and the tomatoes are beginning to show blight. The main allotment task, however, has been uncovering and preparing the beds for overwintering broad beans and peas. After moving the rhubarb pots and lifting the weed-suppressing membrane, I hoed out the remaining weeds and added compost. I’ll keep hoeing until planting time.

Field beans have also gone into another bed as green manure. Their roots can help break up clay soil, and the plants can support soil fertility. I’ll cut them down before flowering, leave the roots in place and return the top growth to the soil.

This weeks recipe

This weeks recipe is a delicous marrow curry which took Richard by surprise as he normally finds marrow a little boring. But this recipe made the marrow exciting that now he wants to grow more marrows just to cook this recipe

A Productive Garden Takes Shape

Alysda and Lisa have made good progress clearing trees for their first vegetable garden. The ground is flinty and currently looks like a building site, but the winter plan is clear: level the soil, secure the underground IBC water tank, lay hardcore and choose fruit trees. Establishing the infrastructure now will make the productive parts of the garden much easier to manage later.

Listen to the full episode for the complete allotment update, the recorded conversation with Alysda and Lisa, and more thoughts on what to sow this month.

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.

In episode 676, the focus is on looking ahead to the next growing season through essential autumn tasks. The small but important jobs of planting garlic, sowing hardy leaves, and preparing protected growing spaces for the shorter days are explored in detail.

Allotment Update: Autumn Garlic Planting and Bed Preparation

The episode begins on the allotment, where six varieties of garlic, saved from the summer harvest, are planted. The reasons for planting in autumn are explained, including the selection of healthy cloves and the importance of a sunny position with free-draining soil. An update is also shared on the hügelkultur bed, which has been topped up with compost, and the cabbages that are now protected from pigeons.

Early-Morning Sowing and Greenhouse Preparation

Back in the kitchen garden, the growing day starts early at 6 a.m. Despite the darkness at that hour, enough light is shed to sow tatsoi, mibuna, mizuna, and spring cabbage before work. The value of short, regular gardening sessions and the extra care needed for autumn seedlings as light levels fall are discussed.

Seedlings soon require more space, prompting the cleaning of the greenhouse and cold frames while the final tomatoes and chillies continue cropping. Topics include cleaning glass to improve winter light, removing debris that can shelter pests and disease, using cloches safely, and checking brassica netting before pigeons become a bigger problem.

Rainwater, Seasonal Baking and the Podding Shed

Recent rain has refilled sixteen water butts after a dry summer. Consideration is given to whether additional storage is needed and why autumn is the right time to inspect gutters, diverters, lids, and connections before winter rain arrives in earnest.

In the kitchen, a rustic apple and courgette autumn loaf is made — a gently spiced bake designed to use two crops that often overlap at the end of summer.

Finally, from the podding shed, the idea is explored that autumn is not the end of the growing year but the beginning of the next one. By dividing seasonal work into four areas — grow, protect, maintain, and store — steady progress can be made without turning autumn into an exhausting list of jobs.

This week Richard takes us out of the kitchen garden and allotment and over to Audley End House in Essex for the Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair — the final show of the year and a perfect chance to gather fresh inspiration as we head into autumn.

Victorian Walled Gardens & Orchard Training

Richard begins his visit in the Victorian kitchen gardens, admiring productive orchard beds, fan‑trained fruit trees and beautifully maintained glasshouses. Apples, pears, asparagus and late‑season veg are thriving despite the challenging summer, and the structure of the garden reinforces that his own move toward a more formal, kitchen‑garden layout at home is the right direction.

Make a Metre Matter: Lucy Chamberlain’s Autumn Garden

Richard then meets up with Lucy Chamberlain to explore the final instalment of her Make a Metre Matter project — nine themed square metres designed to show what can be achieved in small spaces.

Highlights include:

Wildlife habitats for autumn and winter, using windfall apples, moss, bamboo canes and log piles

Woodland ecology, with bracket fungi and chestnut stumps supporting stag beetle larvae

Heat‑loving edibles like tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and basil to extend the harvest

Edible flowers and vertical veg for colour and productivity

A feature wormery, proving composting can be attractive as well as practical

Heat‑tolerant crops such as curly kale and Malabar spinach

Hardy winter salads including chicory, radicchio and mizuna

Leaf mould demonstrations showing the stages of decomposition

A metre dedicated to winter casserole ingredients — beetroot, carrots, kale, potatoes and swede

The garden offers practical, achievable ideas for changing climates and small spaces, and gives Richard plenty of inspiration for his own plot.

Recipe of the Week

Back in the kitchen, Richard shares a warming aubergine and tomato gratin with a crispy potato topping — a perfect way to use up late‑summer veg before autumn fully settles in.

Show Highlights & Heading Home

A wander around the stalls reveals end‑of‑season bargains and familiar exhibitors. Richard picks up a few gifts and a robin‑on‑a‑spade ornament before heading home, feeling motivated to make the most of warm soil now and shift into infrastructure work as winter approaches.