If you’re anything like me – a fairly new veg gardener – I get focused on the summer harvests, and completely forget about Autumn crops. This year, I intend to turn over a new leaf. And this is inspired by two things today: buying some seriously knocked down in price seedlings from Homebase, and a brilliant article on June sowing for Autumn eating that I read on our favourite gardening blog, iGrowVeg.
Cheap seedlings from a garden centre - bargain!
Let’s deal with Homebase first. I couldn’t believe how many seedlings and young plants were there at clearance prices. In the end I bought two strips of lettuce, one broccoli and one cauliflower. In total around 20 viable plants. They cost me £1.48. I call that a bargain and I WILL give them a healthy and happy life in my backgarden. Seriously – go now to your garden centres and find those bargains.
I was looking for some advice on sweetcorn from iGrowVeg.com – go and look at how Tracey makes veg gardening so easy to get into with her brilliant pictures, step-by-steps and planning tools – and immediately saw her article on planting for Autumn.
The link’s at the bottom on this piece, but she says plant in June for Autumn crops (September / October) rather than July or August when these won’t be ready to eat until Winter.
What to sow and plant
Some of the vegetables you can eat during the Autumn months if you get them sown in June are:
- Swede
- Spinach
- Carrot
- Chard
- Khol Rabbi
- Kale
- Pea
- Pumkin (yes – really maybe, possibly)
- Pak Choi
- Raddish
- Salad
- Spinach
- Spring onions
Inspired? Check out iGrowVeg for loads more info, hints and tips.
The most important thing, is be inspired to get something growing in your garden, yard, balcony or window sill. Other things you can easily grow now that will last on until the Autumn and Winter include tomatoes (look at your garden centre bargain shelves now – at Hombease today, good sized plants were selling at half price), chillis and sweet peppers and herbs like mint, tarragon, chives, parsley and coriander.
Savvy shopping
