Hi everyone, I have just covered most of my tiny back garden with raised beds which I will hopefully be filling with compost this weekend. I haven't got anything sown/growing to go in them yet so was hoping for some ideas of things I can start now bearing in mind how vile the weather is & will be in July/August. I'm in Kent & my garden gets morning sun but by 1pm the sun has moved completely away.
So any ideas for veg I can grow that doesn't mind shade for a lot of the day & will do well in this unseasonally cold/wet Summer will be most welcome xJane
Next month I'll be planting out and/or sowing:
Cavolo Nero, Pak Choi - several types, komatsuna and mustards like mizuna and mibuna, perpetual and summer spinach, beetroot, carrots, leeks.
Then there will be spring cabbage and right through from now, lettuce and spring onions. French beans through to august. Overwintering onions go in in august...
Lots to do. I hate the thought of having empty ground, and there is plenty after my massive potato drowning!
Best of luck
Hi Delboy, thanks for the great list...I've never grown komatsuna or the mibuna/mizuna before so have just ordered some seeds also some kale that can be sown right up to August. Feel much happier now ;D
Plenty of time for dwarf french beans and flagolets, 2nd crop courgettes, carrots, you'd probably get parsnips, in the GC's you should be able to buy brussel sprout adn savoy plants (they might be a bit space-eater though) if they've got courgette plants then they'll give you a head start. Umm... IIRC you can still be sowing Hispi and minicole (small cabbages), mixed salad leaves should race away, it's the right time to be sowing fennel
Last year I chucked some seed in the ground and hoped for the best around about the 10th of June. We had just moved in, got the veg patch dug over and went off to the garden centre to see what seeds we could buy to sow in June. Had no idea about A4A back then - it was sow and hope!
We sowed:
Kale (can't remember variety - curly) - success
Calabrese - failed, damped off in modules
Summer cabbage - failed, lol. Didn't know it was a summer variety. Got some greens off it though
Swede - Success
Carrot Nigel F1 - success, but got carrot fly in the end
Boltardy beetroot - resounding success
Leek - oops!
Onion - erm, nope, didn't work
Pea Boogie - success
Crisphead lettuce - success
Broad beans - flowered, blossom dropped, fail
Florence fennel - grew nice and big but no bulbing.
Planted out plants bought from garden centre:
Gooseberry - got rust, shed leaves
Blackcurrant - going strong
Raspberry - going strong
Strawberry - best investment I ever made
Tomato (in planters) - Did OK outdoors
Thanks so much Gordonmull for such a detailed message, I've been through my seeds & ordered a few more so will be sowing lots of different Kale, swede, carrots, beetroot, winter lettuces etc & hoping for the best. The soil has just arrived - will be a huge job moving it from the front of the flat to the back but hope to be sowing by Saturday ;D I'm feeling really excited about my new mini lotty now instead of very sad about giving up the large allotment. I've got gooseberry 'sticks', lol so may try them too. Thought it would be way too late for strawberries so that's encouraging.
Hi Chriscross I hadn't thought about going to a garden centre to get ready to plant things - pretty thick of me :D but I've always grown from seed so it just didn't occur to me. I will have a look this weekend as it would be fab to get some things that are already well on their way.
xJane
Ken Muir still have cold store strawberry plants, they fruit the first year about 3 months after planting and then revert to normal the second year.
I am not convinced about the brassicas and the shade. I find my garden, which is between two houses and so has limited hours of sunshine, is not good for brassicas.
Thanks for the warning Digeroo. I will give them a try & see what happens. I do have a very small front garden that has my herb pots on it at the moment. It gets loads of sun so if needs be I can put one raised bed on there for the brassicas - wouldn't be very pretty but if thats what it takes ;)
I've still to sow
More Peas
More Carrots
Winter / Sping Caulis and Cabbage
Late Lettuce
There are some very attractive brassicas. Red kale russian kale.Red sprouts, coloured cabbages. etc etc
Hi Digeroo I've just ordered some really lovely varieties of Kale (reds/purples) & purple Khol Rabi so if they end up at the front of the house at least they will be colourful ;)
Hi Stevens706 hope all that you sow does well for you, fingers crossed for us all that the weather improves xjane
I noticed my local B&Q still had a few kinds of veggies for sale yesterday peppers, mixed lettuce, beans, celeriac and a few others I cant remember. All were reduced, most to 50p a strip of 8 or 10 I think and suprisingly they looked well, must be all the rain we have had ;D.
Thanks for the tip Jayb I've got a B&Q nearby so will definitely have a look this weekend xjane
In the last week I have sown beetroot, carrots, french beans, lettuce, swede, mizuana, pak choi and spinach as late crops.
Hi Sparkly, I've been busy sowing 3 raised beds today - mixed winter salad leaves packet, rocket, spring onion, radish, little gem lettuces, mustard leaf osaka purple, spinach, kale (fizz), pak choi, chinese cabbages, Mooli, coriander, fennel & dill ;D fingers crossed our late crops do really well xJane
After a lovely sunny day yesterday Iit has rained very heavily all night & it still hasn't stopped ::)
At least my raised beds aren't waterlogged like the grass but I do wonder if the seeds will have been bashed so low down into the soil that they will fail to germinate. Luckily I have more seeds so I may sow some in doors so I can fill the gaps etc....then again if this cold rain is with us longer than a week I may just start to sow the cold weather crops.....bet if I do that we will have a heatwave in November :-\ xJane