There’s still time to plant some healthy winter veg – but you’ll have to be quick, and make sure you pick the right varieties of seeds, says gardening expert Benedict Vanheems
With autumn now well and truly here, gardeners might be thinking about taking things a bit easier and perhaps spending a bit more time indoors. But gardening expert Benedict Vanheems says there’s still time to sow some seeds to ensure a healthy veg patch – but you’ll need to be quick!
He recommends winter-hardy spring onions and lettuce, cauliflowers to provide an early harvest next summer.
Spring onions, despite their name, can do well in winter as long as you pick out a hardy variety, Benedict says on the GrowVeg channel: “Salad onions are a staple in my garden. There’s still time to get in a final sowing of them if you get them in pronto and, if you can offer just a little bit of cold protection.”
If you’re not lucky enough to have a greenhouse, you can always buy some cloches, or even make a raised bed into an improvised poly tunnel using a couple of lengths of alkathene water pipe and some clear plastic sheeting.
Before sowing any seeds, Benedict stresses, you should always make sure the soil is completely free of weeds, and perhaps has a little organic fertiliser added. Mark out your rows and allow plenty of space for each seedling.
You can always start the seedlings off in trays, to give them a bit more protection from the weather, as well as slugs and other pests.
One important tip, Benedict adds, is to make sure the seeds you’re using haven’t been hanging around on a shelf for too long: “Sometimes onions can be a little bit disappointing and fail to germinate properly and that’s because the seed, in my experience, really doesn’t last long at all.
“So to avoid any problems I would start with really super-fresh seed and that way you’ll get good germination rates.”
This may not seem like the right time of year to be thinking about lettuce, but there are actually quite a few varieties that can be sown this time of year: “Many of them have names that hint at this hardiness,” Benedict says, “such as winter gem, arctic king or winter density.”
Just be sure to check the instructions on the seed packet before taking the plunge and, as with your onions, you can start them off indoors to give them the best chance.
Cauliflower is a more obvious winter veg, sitting happily in a roast dinner or as a hearty winter soup.“Autumn-sown cauliflowers offer a not-to-be-missed opportunity to bag yourself an extra early crop next summer,” Benedict says.
In some ways, cauliflowers planted at around this time of year have a bit of an advantage, because they’re ready before the full heat of summer comes along to dry them out, and they can also reach maturity before the peak season for many common garden pests.
You would need to start cauliflowers, even hardy varieties, in a cold frame. Benedict adds that if temperatures are already dropping where you are then it’s a good idea to germinate them inside and then plant them outside once they’re becoming established.
