Planting potatoes in August is very late where we live. Our daylight will fade quickly over the next months. I’m pretty sure we have enough potatoes in the beds I planted in spring. But I still decided to grow more as an experiment, well, two as it would turn out.

Note: The video version of this post gets released on Wednesday, August 21, 2024.

I’d just thrown a layer of cardboard down when we did the mushrooms, because, well, we had the box there anyway. so I just threw it on where I knew I was gonna do the potatoes. And now, I just took it off, and have a look.

It’ll actually make my life easier now that I just need to get rid of the rhizomatous stuff because everything else just gets to stay.

Anyway, let’s get potatoes in here.

Planting potatoes in August is very late where we live. Our daylight will fade quickly over the next months.

Okay, it’s been a long day. I have a withdrawal headache from the painkillers.

I’ve had to take normal people painkillers for the exam on Wednesday, and when I take those I crash badly when I stop taking them. Now I’ve got a headache from here to the back of my neck. …and light sucks and all that. Yeah, anyway.

I’m here to get the potatoes into the ground because I’m kind of hoping that if I get them into the ground now, they will be ready to eat before frost or at least ready enough to eat. They will be small but still…

Just in case I look grumpy: that’s why. My balance also really sucked, so there might be swaying that day. Okay, potatoes.

Preparing the bed was a lot easier after some time under the cardboard. The grass was partially decomposed, so it came out easy in most places.

But why am I planting potatoes in August?

I’m pretty sure we have enough potatoes in the beds I planted in spring. Even in real time, I have not harvested them. But I still decided to grow more as an experiment, well, two as it would turn out.

If everything works out perfectly, and summer arrives in full swing, we might get young potatoes in late fall. I don’t expect that to happen. Instead, I am likely growing seed potatoes for next spring here.

The plants will die with the first real frosts. But the tubers will store well in the ground over winter. If they aren’t ready for harvest by the time the first frosts roll in, we’ll dig them up in the spring. In any case, as excellent bed starters, the potatoes will help make these into proper beds for next year.

This is straw from last year which I was able to get cheap. Bad food, great mulch.

This year, they weren’t able to make straw yet. Every harvest was too wet to make straw from. I am very glad I don’t rely on them to feed or bed animals. It’s been a bad garden year–even on the large scale.

I’ll be emptying the neighbor’s barns soon for more almost-new bedding, but I don’t regret getting these bales. For once, I have no shortage of mulch. Too much is easy to solve. Mulch makes great compost.

I have again underestimated how many pota–well, I have overestimated how many potatoes you need to make a bed.

So, I have too many chopped up again. So, that gives me a chance to make another bed. I have decided to start an experiment with the last few potatoes, because, well it’s an experiment to start with.

So, I might as well go all the way and make one bed where I just do a very thick layer of straw, and don’t rip out anything other than the Ackerschachtelhalm–horsetail– other than the horsetail.

I trimmed down the area tight to the ground, but did not do any weeding or cleanup. Everything was left in.

I temporarily marked the bed outline, and spread out the potatoes. Just like with my other potatoes, the spacing was roughly eyeballed, and I didn’t do a neat job. Neat? This garden isn’t neat. I am totally okay with that. To be honest, I prefer the less polished look of things.

Most of the second straw bale went onto the bed to cover it in a thick layer.

I used more straw here to suppress the plants I had only trimmed off, not pulled. Even at that point, I knew the dandelions and horsetail would survive, but it should work on the rest. Don’t worry. I knew my tool was getting covered. I recovered it before I left.

There was still a lot of straw left after I’d finished the beds, so I continued mulching the carrot bed. As always, there was horsetail to pull.

Some of the kale here survived the onslaught of slugs. They are still small, but growing faster than the slugs eat them.

Pepper definitely enjoys the new potato beds. Fresh bedding to dig himself into.

The next day, I checked on another experiment: Seeding radishes under grass clippings. Many had germinated, so I covered them back up to see if they’d push through.

I know that this bed is mostly just pretty this year, and I’m totally okay with that. I also hope to get some sunflower seeds out of here because…

Look!

Yeah, the pollinators are definitely–sorry!–definitely in there. But look at all the trellising that I’ll have for next year.

All of those sunflower stalks are still gonna be good for trellising next year. The main reason I grew so many sunflowers is because I wanna grow this many peas and beans.

So next year there will be the leftover strands of sunflowers from this year. And, I have some from last year over there, and that’s gonna work just fine. And I’m very happy that the sunflowers at least are enjoying life.

The sunflowers, too, were a successful experiment. This garden keeps teaching me. A bad garden year, sure, but also a year of learning and growth.

So long, and thanks for being here.