Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Folks!
Haven't been on the board for a while due to health probs but just wondered if you can help me out? I need some advice on what I can still sow now? so far my partner who is not green fingered managed to keep the toms aive so they were planted outside a few days ago but I would still love to grow some broc/squashes/swedes/turnips/parsnips/winter cabs etc I've been given some butternut squash plants that have a good 4/5 leaves on so hopefully its not too late for them

Helen

Welcome back! Short answer: lots of things, including the salady things like lettuce and spring onions, dwarf French beans. They often say to sow fennel after mid-summer. And then I tend to sow smaller varieties of kale such as Black and Red Winter in early July, planting them out quite close together when they're big enough. After that, things like komatsuna and mizuna for the autumn/winter. How's that for starters?

Hi Helen, have sent you a pm

Beetroot and runner beans will also give you decent crops if you sow them in the next couple of weeks, also peas for a late crop.
Cheers, Lyn

I only put my Squash outdoors last weekend, they'll make a go of it for sure, I think I was even later last year and we still have a respectable quantity in the garage.

Hi Helen, all the local farmers round here have just sown their Swedes, I have resown some more of my own because a local farmer told me the ones I planted from modules a month ago might "bolt " if they had a check from frost so I am going to have some more as an insurance.

If I can help you out with a few plants - let me know.

In a recent edition of KG someone wrote in about how they sowed purple sprouting broccoli in July and it turned out to be a better crop than his earlier sowings. I hope he's right because my PSB sown in April failed, so I want to get some more in soon.

Thankyou so much for all your good wishes & brilliant advice & PM! this year is certainly not a lost cause A chance conversation with an elderly chap weeding his front garden yesterday yielded me some climbing beans, sweetcorn & squash plants I walked past his garden with my dogs & he said hello & that he hadn't seen a B&W springer for ages, he used to own one, we got talking about the garden & I said I was off to the GC to see if I could pick up a few bits & said he had loads of surplus odds & ends that he couldn't bear to throw on the compost heap just yet so it was my lucky day he helped me take them home & we spent an hour sat out on my patio with a cup of tea & a slice of cake (well two actually!) it was the most plesant of afternoons I'd spent in ages!
so on to my next question!
What kale & Broc would you recommend for a small veggy bed? that I could sow now?

Helen

Hi Helen - glad things are working out so well for you! I think I said above that I find you can sow both the Black Tuscan kale and Red Winter in early July. They are both relatively small compared with some kale, and we find that they suit us very well. I haven't a lot of experience with broccoli, but am experimenting this year with Wok Broc, which again is smallish and therefore should mature relatively quickly.
All the best, Ken

Hi Helen,
Very glad that everybody is rallying round in true gardeners fashion. My worry is that you will overdo things and suffer for it. Do take things easy.
As a plant that is best suited to sowing this time of year I would like to add Kale Pentland Brig to the list. Pentland Brig will give you succulent greens during the winter and in spring it grows rosettes of foliage up the stem not unlike Sprouting Broccoli.
You can eat them before they flower or when they have a head head forming like PSB so it is a two for one vegetable.
Take it steadily and I wish you every success.

The kales do particularly well as a polytunnel crop for young shoots in late spring, helping to fill the "hungry gap"
Allan

Thankyou for all your concerns, Im currently doing the "Point & Plant" I point & my partner plants digging & bending is pretty much out for me now anyway I have three raised beds which I'm going to start the lasagne method of the no dig bed to see if I can actually get away with no digging!

Helen