What To Sow or Plant This Month

If you live in a temperate climate like I do and you haven’t already, March is the month to sow seeds for the winter garden.

Photo courtesy of Louisjos via Pixabay

There is still time to plant out basil and amaranth before the weather gets too cold. It’s also the time to plant out garlic cloves and chickory, horseradish, and Chinese (Wombok) Cabbage. Plant leek seedlings now as well.

You can sow burdock, carrots, corn salad (Lamb’s ear or mache), radish, rocket, shallots, and turnips directly in the garden.

Seeds that need to be sown in pots or seedling trays are members of the brassica family such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, pak choy, mizuna, mustard greens, swedes. Broad beans, chives, coriander, dill, endive, fennel, lettuce, New Zealand spinach, parsley, peas, silver beet (Swiss chard), spinach, and spring onions can all be sown now as well.   

This year, I’m keeping things simple and sticking to some of my tried and true favorites. If you’re looking to plant something reliable and delicious, you might want to consider these:

Broccoli: A fantastic source of vitamins and super versatile in the kitchen.

Snow Peas & Sugar Snap Peas: Perfect for snacking straight from the vine! They are perfect in a stir fry and add a sweet crunch to a salad. 

Carrots: I can’t imagine my vegetable garden without them. They never disappoint! Plus, there’s something so satisfying about pulling fresh carrots from the ground. 

Garlic, Onions, Shallots, and Leeks: Garlic is an essential ingredient for me; it’s my go-to aromatic. While I’m not a fan of onions due to their strong flavor, my daughter and son-in-law are currently living with me and use onions in nearly every meal. As a result, I will be planting some this year. Although I don’t enjoy onions, I do appreciate the flavors that leeks and shallots add to a dish, so I will find space for them in my garden as well.

Lettuce: The cooler months are the only time I can grow lettuce, so I take full advantage of having it in my garden.

Are you thinking about starting a winter vegetable garden this year? If so, what do you have planned? Are you excited to try out varieties that you've never grown before?

Until next time, happy gardening.

Janette.

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The Vegetable Garden in June

After what was an unseasonably warm autumn, where the temperature barely dipped below 20°C, winter finally arrived and the jumpers have come out of storage. 

The temperature may have dipped, but the garden is growing well. I have two growing spaces, the raised garden beds which I have only had for twelve months, and the in-ground garden space that I created not long after I moved in here fifteen years ago. 

The in-ground garden is where I am growing all of my brassicas. There is broccoli Di Ciccio and Green Dragon, a heritage mix of kohl rabi, Red Russian kale, Long Island Brussel sprouts, and four different varieties of cauliflower, orange, Green Macerata, Snowball, and Rober. That’s not weeds you can see growing, it is volunteer poppy seedlings, and Sweet Alyssum. They’ll put on a lovely display come spring.

A small section of the brassica bed.

In all, I have nine raised garden beds in three rows of three. In the first bed, I have a couple of potato plants. (I have since added more). I love homegrown potatoes. They are so much better than anything I can buy at the supermarket. I wish I had the room to grow more, and the storage space to keep them.  

In the second bed there are daffodils and tulips that were a gift from my two youngest daughters for Mother's Day this year. I have planted over the top with poppies. 

In bed three is a heirloom mix of  beetroot and Purple Top White Globe turnips. It was also meant to have parsnips growing in it, but after three unsuccesful sowings I gave up.

In bed four there is some Little Dragon Chinese cabbages (also known as Napa or Wombok cabbage). A row of Red Baby bok choy. (I have no idea where the green one came from as I did not sow any this year.) Along the front of the bed there is four Red Kitten spinach plants. 

Bed five is the strawberry bed. I replaced my older strawberry plants in autumn and that is why these plants are so small. This bed will remain permanent and I won’t use it for anything else.

Bed six is the garlic bed. The cloves I planted were ones that were kept from last year’s harvest and are a mix of Italian White, Italian Late, Purple Stripe and Rojo de Castro. Along both sides, I have planted a row of shallots. After years of not eating onions because I didn’t like the taste of them, I have recently discovered that I don’t mind the flavour of shallots and leeks.

Bed seven is the carrot bed. I'm so happy with how well the carrots are growing this year, so lush and green. It is a real mix of varities in this bed including Black Nebula, Kyoto Red, Purple Dragon, Solar, and Nantes.

Bed eight is were I grew Beauregard sweet potatoes this past summer. I had planted them late and didn't think I would get a harvest, but I was wrong. 

In the greenhouse, there are the beginnings of my herb garden. Parsley, thyme, oregano, chives, and garlic chives.

I’m overwintering some tomatoes that came up in the beds where the tomatoes grew over summer. More volunteers that came up from the compost that I added to the potato bed will soon join them. Hopefully, by the time spring arrives, I will have tomatoes all ready to go out into the garden.

As well as growing vegetables, I am growing some fruit as well.

My Sunshine Blue blueberry flowering in winter. When this happened last year I panicked thinking I would have no blueberries, but I needn’t have worried as I had a bountiful harvest. I have since learned that some varieties do set their flowers in winter.

I also have a Valencia orange, a Navel orange, and an Imperial mandarin, (which fruited for the first time in a long time), raspberries, a Loganberry, a blackberry, a blackcurrant, and a Flame seedless grape. All grown in pots as I rent, and I want to take them with me if ever I need to move.

Until next time, stay safe, and be kind to each other.

 

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Seeds

Seeds, where would we be without them?  They fill our flower beds with colour and fragrance, and allow us to grow tasty, nutritious food to feed ourselves and our family. They are the perfect little capsule, containing everything that is needed to start the next generation of plant life. They lay dormant sometimes for years waiting for the perfect growing conditions and then, they spring into life. 

This year I am trying to grow all my vegetables and flowers from seed.

What I'm growing

Sown 24th September

Melons

Hale's Best 

Sugar Baby
Luscious Red

Tomatoes

Honeybee 

Rouge de Marmande

San Marzano

Unknown truss (seeds were from shop bought tomatoes)

Corn

Kelvedon Glory

Jubilee Bicolour

Cucumber

Lebanese (sprouted today)

Zucchini 

Green Bush

Beans

Windsor Longpod

Brown Beauty

Butter 

Cannelini

Red Kidney

Borlotti

Leafy Greens

Cos lettuce

Green Mignonette

Salad mix which includes

Lolla Rossa

Bionda

Red and green salad bowl and

Great Lakes

Endive

Kale

Medania spinach
Celery

Eggplant

Snowy

Rosa Bianca

Capsicum

Hungarian Yellow Wax Sweet

Basil

Sweet Genovese

Thai

Radicchio

Palla Rossa

And a new one to try this year, chickpeas.

Flowers
Borage
Alyssum Rosie O'Day
Poached Egg Plant
Nasturtium
Zinnia
Candy Tuft
Calendula

So, hopefully not only will my vegetable garden be productive it will look beautiful as well.

This is my contribution to this months Garden Share Collective 

hosted by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table, Krystie from a A Fresh Legacy and Kate from Rhubarbs and Rosehips. To see what they and others have to say click on any of the links above.

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