Grow Your Own Magazine

Grow Your Own needs your tips!

We'd love to hear what everyone's planning to sow this October.

Let us know any autumnal advice you'd like to share with other readers and then keep an eye on the mag – you might end up in print!

hi
i am going to try garlic, onions, broad beans, cauliflower and spinach. my first autumn sowing so any advice gratefully received
xxxmillyxxx

Like last year as it was my first time growing lots of veg I will plant my overwintering onion sets and broadbeans not sure what else yet they both did very well.

The 10th of October is apparently the best time of year to sow sweet peas. My grandfather learned this from an accomplished sweet pea exhibitor at the new Forest Show. he now has the best sweet peas I've seen.

Pretty useful is you want to use them to attract pollenators!

Jennifer

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Whilst typing the above reply, I was probably supposed to be doing homework. My excuse: I'm hooked!

At the very least I'll be sewing Rainbow Chard and Perpetual Spinach to overwinter as they cropped all winter/spring and didn't bolt until May. I'll also put in a first sewing of Broad Beans to give me an early crop in the spring, and overwintering onion sets which were far more successful than my spring sewn ones.

Yapanese Onions

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My rabbit- for pruning the apple tree

That's odd, where did mine and Jackie J's replys go? Mods - have we been censored?

...goes off to pm Ben...

I'm planting japanese onions with lots of dung and some spring cabbage

You must sow Broad Beans (Aquadulce) Pea (Feltham First) under a cloche on or about Bonfire Night!! also onion sets.
Oh dont forget to keep digging little and often, and paint the shed
And plan for next year, and store the apples,spuds,onions,shallots,pumpkins,
squash, and anything else that I may have forgotten,and inbetween eat your veg ,and enjoy.
Have a happy time on your allotment.

its not really sowing, but it is possible to grow mushrooms in loo roll tubes from october..? Toilet roll oyster mushrooms theyre called.
Don't know lots about it, but I read in "Window-box allotment" that you can do this?

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"You never really understand a person until you look at things from their point of view, until you step into their skin and walk around in it" - Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird

I normaly plant my garlic (solent wight) in October. They are great for Autumn planting and produce good sized bulbs. They go in 2" deep and 6" apart with 12" between rows.

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good Diggin, Chuffa.

We're planning on planting a few overwintering crops this year, the idea being to maximise our cropping potential by getting another crop growing as soon as possible after
this years crops are harvested! The planting plans are almost complete for next year, and we've already bought most of the seeds for next year (apart from seed spuds and onion sets + another types of garlic to go along with the 2 types we grew this year that will have the best bulbs replanted next year!) Once our current crops are out, then we'll be manuring the beds that need it, planting up the beds that we want for overwintering crops, and covering the rest to prevent the soil leaching - and to keep the weeds down!

We'll be planting 2 types (possibly 3 types) of overwintering Garlic, approx 50 cloves of each, along with 2 types of overwintering onion sets, probably about 100 sets of each.

We're also planning on planting out 2 types of overwintering broad bean and 1 type of overwintering pea, these will be protected where necessary with cloches.

Along with that there will also be some more spring cabbages to plant out (the first batch are due to go out next month, with a second batch in September and a final batch in October), these will be netted for protection against rabbits and pidgeons!

Other than that, ther will be some salad crops planted into the greenhouse borders, some overwintering spring onions and pak choi and chinese cabbage planted out aswell.

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 26th November2008 - more new piccies!

I'll be sowing Super Aquedulce Claudia broad beans at the end of October, in modules so the slugs don't finish them off.
When they're a few inches tall I will plant them out on the allotment, with support against winter gales. You don't want them to be too tall over the winter, or the weather will just destroy them. They need to have a good root system though, and then they'll romp away in the spring and give you a slightly earlier crop than your spring-sown varieties.

* I am drying my own seed right now, ready for sowing.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I'll also be sowing Onion Senshyu, a popular over-wintering Japanese variety. Sow 50-60 plants per m² into a good, fertile, well draining soil. Sow even closer if you like baby onions.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Oh, and of course Keepwell onion, also an over-wintering Japanese onion. It has brown/yellow skin and white flesh. Slightly flattened bulbs. As the name suggests, these store well for 4-5 months after the summer harvest.
Mine did really well ~ they are sitting in the sun (!) drying off right now.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I've not found it much of a benefit over wintering broad beans or peas as they need quite a bit of attention in the worst of the weather (usually winds) and you only seem to get crops a week or so earlier. However, I find that growing winter salads under cover (either under cloches or in old grow bags in the green house) as there is nothing better than a bit of fresh salad in my lunch box in the middle of winter.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I've never autumn sown before. Was going to try onions and garlic...

A great time to plant garlic. To get really good bulbs, they benefit from being exposed to frost. All mine always split into corms and are ready to pull end of June, early July dependant upon the weather. You do however need to ensure you water them in the spring if you get hot days and several days between significant rain or they will bolt.

It's on another thread...for some reason this was posted about 6 times in different places.

Needs merging together to be honest, or it will get very confusing.

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trials completed:
tomatoes
[46% increase in crop per seed sown and 10% increase in crop per plant]

currently underway:
calabrese
garlic

http://linearlegume.blogspot.com/

It doesn't take much to confuse me!! Lets hope Ben will sort it out on Monday for us.

This autumn, I will be sowing garlic and japanese onions for overwintering. I will also be sowing some broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia) as these gave a great early crop, and peas (Meteor) as these gave a lovely taste of summer in May - well ahead of my spring sown peas. I'll also try some more overwintering salads this year, although I need to do more research on varieties yet - possibly land cress and lettuce "all year round" (I think that's a lettuce too and not just a cauliflower?).

I hate having the plot completely empty over the winter (and I also have plenty of leeks and brassicas in since earlier in the summer), but as I don't have a polytunnel or greenhouse, I am a bit limited in what I can put there (it is quite an exposed site for wind). I'll also leave one half of the ground to rest over winter too though - probably just covered with builder's plastic, although I'd put some farmyard or stable manure there if I got hold of it too.

Solent wight garlic planted 2" deep and 4" apart in rows 12" apart. Don't plant in freshly manured ground, you will get more top than bulb. Give a nitrogen boost in spring.

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good Diggin, Chuffa.

Hi
Keep a good supply of seedlings growing into young plants so that there's always something to plant out as soon as you harvest and there's a space. That way too you have crops like spinach and cabbages growing at different rates and not everything is ready to eat at the same time.
Sue

I posted on another version of this thread yesterday but its gotten lost!!

I am going to be planting garlic and japanese onions for overwintering. The garlic does better with some cold, and the onions are ready nice and early, just when the winter stores are finishing up.

I will also be sowing some broad beans (aquadulce claudia) and peas (meteor) for some earlier than normal harvests next April/May - a lovely fresh taste so early in the season.

Along with some salad leaves (I think the lettuce variuety was "all year round" - that's not just a cauliflower variety is it?), and some land cress and corn salad. I hope the perpetual spinach will keep going as well for other greens.

Previously sown and planted are plenty of brassicas (brussels sprouts, purple sprouting brocolli, kale and cabbage - cauliflower doesn't do very well on our site) and a large bed of leeks (planted where I dug up the early spuds).

I much prefer to see the ground in use as much as possible but I also intend covering half the plot (with builder's plastic) to let it rest - if I can get hold of some farmyard or stable manure, I'll put that over it too. And I am also somewhat restricted in what I can grow through the winter as our plot is very exposed to wind, and I don't have any greenhouse/polytunnel available.