Winter veg help please

[spud57]

Hi there. I ordered some seeds the other day - psb, cauliflower, spring cabbage - hoping for autumn/winter veg but when I got them the packets said that they should have been sown April/May! I was only getting my head around all the summer stuff then... is it really too late now for any winter/spring veg?

[Peanut]

You can still sow things, I've got a Spring Cabbage "April" and some Rainbow chard to sow yet and I'll be doing some potatoes too. I'm sure there's more than those, but that's my list!

[Birdie Wife]

There are various salad/ greens you can sow and give a bit of protection later on to keep them on the go - try any of the oriental greens like pak choi and tatsoi, mustard/turnip greens are good in stirfries too. Perpetual spinach is fairly winter hardy too, and radishes. You'll probably get away with some autumn carrots too.

[Tam]

These are some suggested sowings for July that I gleaned from the web:

#
Continue to sow outdoors
Chinese cabbage
Chinese cabbage









'Champion of England' Pea
This is a Heritage Seed Library
pea variety called
'Champion of England'
More information on HSL





Swiss chard
Swiss chard
M Beetroot early and maincrop; until July. Try 'Bolthardy', good resistance to bolting, with fine texture and flavour, available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
M Chinese cabbage until end August. Do not transplant from a seedbed - either sow direct or in modules. Some varieties, such as Tatsoi, should not be sown before the end of June, or they will quickly go to seed. Others, such as Nikko can be sown as early as March.
M Calabrese until end July
Carrots early; until end July
Try some in a box if you've run out of space in the garden.
Use an early variety such as the extra sweet Sugarsnax or the spherical rooted Paris Market.
M Cauliflower mini - until early July
Chicory until end July; Pain di Zucchero, harvest in October.
Chicory, red and sugar loaf until end August
M Florence fennel for sowing before mid June, choose a cultivar listed as suitable for early sowing; some cultivars are very sensitive to day length and will bolt if sown before the longest day (21st June); until early August
M French beans until end June, or July for a late crop of dwarf beans under cloches
Hamburg parsley Until end July. Grown for its white parsnip-like roots.
M Kohl rabi until August. Try Azure Star, striking blue/purple ‘bulbs’ with white, mild flavoured flesh.
M Lettuce looseleaf, Cos, crisphead and butterhead. Lettuce, apart from crisphead varieties, germinates poorly when the soil temperature goes above 25C. This can happen in summer. To avoid this risk in hot weather, sow into well watered soil between 2 and 4pm, then cover with some form of shading material for the first 24hrs.
Salad onions to mid June; sow winter varieties from August onwards, such as Ramond
M Pak choi until end August
M Parsley Until end July
Peas maincrop, mangetout and sugarsnap [ to end July]. Where pea moth is a problem, delay sowings until mid May, so they will be flowering after the pea moth lays its eggs.
Radish, mooli until end August
Radish, winter Until end August. Sow winter varieties such as China Rose and Black Spanish.
M Spinach, perpetual Until mid August, or end of August under cover. You'll find it under Leaf Beet in the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
M Swiss chard Until mid August, or end of August undercover. To brighten up your winter plot, try the variety 'Bright Lights'. Stems can be orange, yellow, red, bright pink or even white!
You'll find it under Leaf Beet in the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Turnip early varieties till end August; maincrop varieties till August.

M = may also be raised in modules for transplanting
#
Sow in a seedbed to transplant
M Kale (borecole) to early August

M = may also be raised in modules for transplanting
#

[spud57]

Thank you!! I can still do loads of stuff by the look of it! Many thanks for the replies

[Birdie Wife]

I just found out that I should have followed my early tatties with leeks by mid summer at the latest I think I'm way too late now! Ah well, you live and learn.

[chrissie the chippy]

Has it gone mid summer already?!?! Suppose in the planting world it has... I was wondering what to follow my early tats with, I'm still digging them up now and want to fill the ground asap to make the most of it. I did start off some leeks in april and they are still in a tray, would probably kill them if I transplanted them now.... there are hundreds cramed into the try! Oh well, next year I guess!

Great ideas on the thread! I've already got some yellow chard growing, might add a few more colourful chards now I know it isn't too late! mini caulis sound great too!

[Birdie Wife]

They are very robust Chrissie - tip them out of the tray and tease the roots apart, make holes about 9" apart and 6" deep, drop the leekling into the hole and water in the roots, no need to firm the soil around them. Might as well stick 'em in the ground if you've room! That's what I'm doing (well, after I've checked my tatties!).

[Winged one]

I planted out the first of my 3 pots of leeks almost 3 weeks ago - I plan on planting out at least one and hopefully both of the remaining pots this weekend (if I can eat enough spuds this week!!). The first lot looked quite happy last weekend.

In relation to things for overwintering: You are too early for a lot of things that I know I did last year and will be doing again this year:
Broad beans
Peas
Lettuces and hardy salads
Japanese Onions


Last year, I didn't get brassica seeds sown in time either, so I ordered a set of winter brassica plugs and they were well worth it. The seed companies would still have these available and they might be worth consideration. I got a whole collection of 15 each of 2 types of cabbage (did very well), cauliflowers (only got about 3 but they don't do well on our site anyway), and both purple and white sprouting brocolli (white wasn't great but purple was fantastic!! - never had grown either before). I know brussels sprouts were available too.

This year I have managed to grow seeds at the right time, but you could still grow some cabbages from seed for later spring crops, and order some plugs for winter crops (and make a note in the diary for next year to sow earlier).

[chrissie the chippy]

They are very robust Chrissie - tip them out of the tray and tease the roots apart, make holes about 9" apart and 6" deep, drop the leekling into the hole and water in the roots, no need to firm the soil around them. Might as well stick 'em in the ground if you've room! That's what I'm doing (well, after I've checked my tatties!).

Thank you Will give them a go this weekend after digging up the spuds for sunday roast! Fingers crossed!

[louhar161179]

i have recycled old plastic pop bottles by putting my leeks in there and they are growing fantastic at the moment all i did was make holes at the bottom and then fill with compost.

I've got all my neighbour to save me the pop bottles and by the time i was ready i had about 75 pop bottles!!!

after popping the leeks into the compost inside the bottle i got a load of storage boxes and put them in there and each box holds 12, and i have got three storage boxes full of leeks now

the reason for the storage boxes is i haven't got much room in my garden so they are very compact in there and don't take up much room.

and far to many pop bottles left over...