Planning Ahead!

[Hungry Hannah]

Hiya,
With all talks of recession my hubby is really coming around to this growing your own malarky and even said i can take over more of the garden!, untill now i've only really grown summer veg, my question is what can i put in to get me through the winter? All help and suggestions appreciated!

[Cloud]

If your quick Swede,Purple sprouting and later on onion sets and garlic oh and by the way welcome to the Vine.

[Hungry Hannah]

Many thanks! does swede need to be sown in final position? as I assume being root veg it cant be transplanted.

[Cloud]

Yes then thin it out.
Brassicas are a good type of veg for growing and using overwinter.

[Snadger]

Many thanks! does swede need to be sown in final position? as I assume being root veg it cant be transplanted.

Hi Hungry H! I usually sow an early crop of swede in pots for planting out and a later crop direct sown!

Waiting to go in when space is available are:-

Leeks mammoth and Musselburgh........ presently in a clump in ground
Savoy cabbage in pots
Red curly kale and tuscan kale in seed bed (not too late to sow now!)
PSB (both early and late)
Spring cabbage will be sown in july
Autumn planted onion sets....once they appear in GC
Garlic will be planted in Autumn
Broad beans will be sown for overwintering.
Autumn sown annual flowers for cutting next year
Might try a late sowing of all year round caulis
Autumn sown peas were a waste of time last year, but may try again!

Probably other stuff as well which I haven't thought of yet!

[Hungry Hannah]

All sounds good, will get cracking!

Also, will spuds grow in green house over winter, or is it best to put more main crop in now for storage? Read on another site that I could do them in greenhouse, but was badly worded and wasn't sure if it meant for starting them early in spring. (which is how i started some of mine this year and have eaten them all already!)
oh (sorry keep thinking of things!) am i too late to start borlotti beans, keep seeing them and thinking they'd be yummy
Ta xx

[zazen999]

Hannah - I sowed borlotti only yesterday, I am in the Midlands and you can easily get a later harvest from seeds sown in a month or so.

[Winged one]

Hi Hannah,

I have heard others talking about sowing leeks now (and I am actually debating sowing an extra pot as I think we'll easily eat all I've done so far).

Kale, cabbages, cauliflowers and purple sprouting brocolli for spring are ok to sow now (do the PSB soon though, and maybe some cabbage/cauli straightaway and another sowing in maybe 4-8 weeks time for a later crop into spring).

I am pulling and eating my overwintered onions for the past 4 weeks or so - they aren't ready to store yet but are fine and oh so sweet to eat now. Garlic is also good for overwintering.

I planted peas the last weekend of july last summer and I was still picking in November (I actually did pick some on Xmas eve, but they had been tunneled so weren't edible - but still edible in the sense of not gone over).

You could still plant carrots too.

I am planning on planting more broad beans as soon as the seeds arrive (due any day now) for later this summer, and freezing for winter. I have just planted dwarf french beans last week, and plan on more this week (last week was old seed, so planting new seed when that arrives - postie had better hurry up!!). And turnips, swedes, kale and fennel in that package too...

Other things that worked well over winter for me were lettuce (can't remember variety but it was suitable for winter outdoors) which I was picking since about March and could have picked as baby leaves earlier, peas (meteor) which I was picking about a month ago and the last should be ready this week, and broad beans (aquadule claudia) which were also starting to be picked about 5-6 weeks ago and probably could have started a little bit sooner if I'd wanted (again harvesting the last of those this weekend).

[Cloud]

All sounds good, will get cracking!

Also, will spuds grow in green house over winter, or is it best to put more main crop in now for storage? Read on another site that I could do them in greenhouse, but was badly worded and wasn't sure if it meant for starting them early in spring. (which is how i started some of mine this year and have eaten them all already!)
oh (sorry keep thinking of things!) am i too late to start borlotti beans, keep seeing them and thinking they'd be yummy
Ta xx

You can plant spuds in the greenhouse now and you should have new pots for xmas.Probably a bit late to plant maincrops now but you could try.Nothing to lose!!