You’ve still got time to veg out for this year
YOU may think you’ve missed the boat with seed-sowing for a veg crop this year, but there are still seeds you can sow now to give you a harvest in autumn and winter.
The RHS advises that gardeners can sow corn salad, land cress and oriental salad leaves such as komatsuna, mibuna, mizuna, mustard and rocket in late summer to provide leaves through autumn and winter if covered with a cloche, cold frame or fleece.
‘No-dig’ gardening expert and YouTuber Charles Dowding, offers some suggestions.
Excellent when sown in early August, spinach can crop for nine months if you harvest the outside larger leaves as it grows, Charles explains. It is winter-hardy and leaves actually sweeten in the cold. ‘Medania’ and ‘Red Cardinal’ are two varieties to look out for.
These are good to sow in early August, Charles advises. Plant rocket, mustards and mizuna, plus the tasty pak choi and more unusual tatsoi.
The RHS advises gardeners to sow salad plants direct into the ground in summer in shallow drills that have been watered before sowing.
Chinese cabbage is a particularly good crop for late summer. Sow thinly in fertile soil outdoors up until August, every three weeks for successional crops, 1cm deep in rows 38cm (15in) apart.
Coriander and chervil give lovely autumn leaves from sowing late in July, and may even survive winter, says Charles.
You can also sow winter radishes through July and August, which should be ready to harvest in October and November. Winter radishes such as mooli, are great in stir fries.
Lettuce can be sown up to early September, for growing in protected spots such as balconies or window boxes through the winter months.
Winter purslane, a delicious crunchy salad leaf packed with vitamin C, can be sown in early September, as can fast-growing land cress.