What to plant now?

[shonam]

Have just about cleared my first bed on my new plot. Any suggestions what I could be planting now? I saw the thread about over winter onions, so I reckon I could give that a go - any other suggestions?

Shona :)

[shonam]

[saddad]

Someone, who knows what they are doing, will give you a link to the recent thread on this...
Winter lettuce, Winter Radish (much under rated) endive and chicories...  :)

[Flighty]

This month Swiss chard, perpetual spinach and mixed winter salad leaves. Next month broad beans, peas, garlic and onion sets.
New soft fruit bushes and rhubarb can be planted in November if the ground is wokable.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

i've planted oriental winter salads now. First sowing last month looks good, though some of them were a bit ravaged by caterpillars. Most of what i've sown is new to me though.

So, not only is my ground wokable, the veg are too  ;D

[earlypea]

Winter Radish (much under rated)

In what way Saddad?  I've got some Black Spanish which I'd planned to sow, but I can't work out what they'll taste like having read a lot of differing reports.

[PurpleHeather]

Unless you have got some large potted up plants which should have gone into their final position last month then it is going to be a bit late to get anything much and since almost everything goes dormant about now until Spring I fear that you are going to just encourage weeds which will mean you will have a lot to clear up next Spring.

I have grown overwinter onions and they are ready before the Spring planted ones, but only just by a couple of weeks or so. They do not keep well and have to be used first. Same with planting out broad beans and peas early, there is not much gain but as I said there are weeds which will grow too. Go ahead with these by all means after all that work it is easy to understand how keen you are to get something in but the kindest advice I can offer is to put a layer of manure on top and/or some black plastic weighed down with bricks and keep looking at it and dreaming for a few months.

Covering will help keep the soil warm so that in February you can get your garlic and onions in, March some potatoes, broad beans, peas. Plus you will be able to get some brassicas and leeks started off, even if it is a few seeds in a pot or two on a window ledge,  then everything will gradually follow.

Over the years I have not found that much if anything is gained by starting sooner.

If you can bide your time until Spring I think you will be glad you did and if you start too soon I feel sure that you will wish you had waited.

It is next winter you can get the benefit of things planted mid summer for winter and early spring use.

[saddad]

Winter radish... can be eaten raw... grated onto salads it tastes like radish (hot) but can be boiled/ mashed/roasted like any "root" veg and looses the heat...  :)

[thifasmom]

i found getting the garlic in before Christmas gave me bigger bulbs than the  February sown ones which remained tiddly :-\ and the feb sown ones also went to seed. I'm sticking to late autumn/ early winter sowings of garlic.

edited to add: i also overwinter chinese greens such as pak choi, mizuna and chinese leaves. mine were started about a month ago and were planted out week before last.

your season is shorter than mine but if the soil is still warm they do germinate very quickely and should stand throughout the winter with a cloche for protection, to give you early spring greens.

[Flighty]

I agree with Purple Heather and  despite what I listed earlier I grow very little over the winter!

[grawrc]

You can still sow beetroot and carrots (the short varieties), spring onions, Swiss chard, fennel and winter lettuces + chinese leaves provided you are prepared to cloche when the weather gets bad. I'll be putting my garlic and autumn onions in next month as usual then some broad beans. I don't really bother with peas at this time although someone gave me a packet of Douce Provence so I might give it a go. Personally I don't like black plastic so I tend to pile empty beds up with a peak in the middle or sow green manure - tares, rye grass etc.  I suppose cardboard weighted down with a few bricks would do the trick too. The aim is to stop the weeds from coming back and to stop all the nutrients being washed out over winter.

As Flighty said, autumn is the time for planting fruit when it is dormant so you could do that too if you want.

Have you planned where things are going next year? I do a 5 year rotation of roots, legumes, brassica, potatoes and onions etc so that helps me decide what to put in where and when. Then I have the permanent beds for fruit, globe artichokes, asparagus and pumpkins/squashes.

if I were you I would be planning what I want to grow (based on what you like to eat) and plan the beds accordingly, aiming to get a good chunk of your plot cleared over the next couple of months. Draw it on paper or on your computer and get all the seed catalogues and browse!AS Purple Heather says, even if you put nothing in now, everything will take off quickly from spring sowings when the soil is warming up.

[shonam]

Thanks for the replies. :)

I think maybe the black plastic may be the way to go after all. We haven't worked out the beds/rotation yet so maybe we should concentrate on that and keeping the beds weed free for the start of next year. Its just so tempting to get started now.

TBH we're not sure of the plan for the plot yet as it's so overgrown and full of rubbish that I think that it's a bit of a case of literally seeing how the land lies lol. We're working up the left hand side just now. Just made one bed of 4ftx12ft and I think we'll repeat this up that side as far as we can, maybe with a few 5ft wide that would suit brassicas.

[earlypea]

Winter radish... can be eaten raw... grated onto salads it tastes like radish (hot) but can be boiled/ mashed/roasted like any "root" veg and looses the heat...  :)

Thanks - that explains why some say it's hot and some say it's not!  It was the rooty veg aspect I was after so I'll give it a go.

Shonan - it's all sensible advice, but on the other hand.......as a new plot owner I think it's much more motivating to have something, anything growing and to look forward to rather than just bare earth and more drudgery.  I'd sow something if it was me.