Easy seeds to sow now

Refresh your vegetable patch by sowing or planting into gaps now and you will be picking within weeks. Getting things in early August yields far more than starting later in the month. Cover with cloches during the worst of the weather. 1 ORIENTAL VEG Sow direct into the ground in spaces where summer crops have been harvested to produce a quickgrowing crop for salads, stir-fries and Asian cooking. Try the hardy komatsuna (mustard spinach), pak choi, mibuna, mizuna and Chinese cabbage for a late-summer crop. Ensure they are kept well watered.

2 TURNIP Enjoy this crop in a matter of weeks by sowing seeds thinly, 1cm deep, 15cm apart, into soil enriched with well-rotted manure or compost. Keep watered. Go for ‘Purple Top Milan’ or ‘Snowball’ to harvest as baby turnips to roast. 3 RADICCHIO

Pick leaves from the outside in a cut-and-come-again fashion for winter. Look for ‘Palla Rossa’ and ‘Rossa di Treviso’. Sow into module trays. Transplant seedlings to 30cm apart in partial shade.

4 SPRING CABBAGE

Try ‘Durham Early’ or ‘Winter Jewel’. Start them off in module trays or sow direct in rows 2cm deep. If buying young plugs, plant these 30cm apart. Net the plants to prevent white caterpillars.

Blueberries flourish in acid-growing conditions and must be kept moist through the summer. Radicchio ‘Rossa di Treviso’ tastes as good as it looks