Medwyn Williams advises on what can be grown for a late July show, growing potatoes in bags and feeding garlic
Joyce Woodward, by email
Medwyn says: This will be dependent on what sort of facilities you have access to – do you have a polytunnel, cold greenhouse or a heated greenhouse? The dynamics alter considerably if you have a heated greenhouse as you can start some of the 20-pointed vegetables earlier, thereby ensuring you have well-grown specimens for your local show. In this context I’m referring in particular to leeks and onions that need an early start to their season.
However, it’s not too late to start shallots off in pots or cells in a polytunnel with a view to planting them out in March so they're ready for your village show from July. Broad beans, namely the variety 'Aquadulce Claudia', can also be started under cover in pots for planting out later on. Peas (the variety 'Show Perfection') are also best started in pots, but the ideal timing for your local show must be calculated from your diary. 'Show Perfection' used to be called the ‘100day pea’, meaning it would be ready for showing from 100 days after the sowing date.
Cabbages can be started under cover and I'd recommend 'Kilaton', a club root-resistant variety with solid round heads which grows to a very good size and if sown now should be ready for late July. A red cabbage can also be sown; I'd recommend 'Lodero' F1, another club root-resistant variety. With all these sowings, whether under glass or in a polytunnel, it’s important you have either a propagator or a heated mat to give you early germination.
If you have some raised beds, drums or pipes you can also start off some parsnips by either filling the pipe with fine compost, such as Levington F2S, or coring a hole in the beds or drums and filling them with the same compost. I'd suggest you sow a relatively early variety such as
'Sabre' F1, which did very well from me last year at Chelsea.