3 crops to start now
Garlic ‘Early Purple Wight’
Large, robust, purple-tinged softneck garlic, ready for harvest as early as June.
How to Grow in soil which has had garden compost added. Rake the soil to a crumbly tilth. Using a string line, plant individual cloves 2cm deep, at 15cm intervals and in rows 30cm apart. Protect from birds until plants have established.
Onion ‘Senshyu’
This is a heavy-yielding, semiglobe-shaped winter-hardy variety, producing golden skins and white flesh. A good onion for storing overwinter. How to Sow seeds outdoors in prepared 1cm-deep drills. Once germinated, allow the plants to continue growing through the winter. In spring, thin them out, 25cm apart (the thinnings can be used as salad onions). Water the plants regularly, keeping the area weed free, and harvest the bulbs by the end of July.
Lettuce ‘Winter Density’
A crisp, compact romaine lettuce, with an upright growing habit. How to Raise seedlings under glass in seed trays at 1cm-deep drills. Thin to 3cm before pricking out when the seedlings have four or five true leaves. Plant out under cover
(in a greenhouse or cold frame) and continue to pick leaves through winter.