what to sow?

[Gemizzel]

Hi everyone

I harvested my radish yesterday, Im a total beginner and didnt realise how big they got! I dont particularly like them so am waiting for a family member to tell me if they were nice

Anyway I now have a freshly turned over bed ready for something to be sown.. if possible

I have some carrot seeds and some spring onion seeds at home, is it too late to put them in?

TIA

[BertieFox]

Depending on how much space you have and what your real needs are, I'd suggest the following:

1. Summer and autumn crop. Still time to sow dwarf French beans. Space for space, if you keep the plants picked when the young beans are still reasonably small, these will go for several weeks and start cropping only a few weeks from now. That means picking them every day or every other day in warm weather.

2. Winter and spring crops. There are lots of things you can sow now for planting out in autumn and harvesting next spring. In particular I'd recommend kales, like curly kales, or spring cabbage, which can be closely planted and thinned as you harvest the leaves in the spring. My favourite kale, if you can get seed, would be Red Russian, which is very tasty and tender even when the leaves get large, but which should provide you with lots of sprouting shoots in late spring.

Baby turnips, the little white types like Tokyo Cross, would also be a productive crop, which would mature by the autumn. Sowing might be difficult at this time of year if it is dry and warm though, with both flea beetle and other pests proving a problem.

Carrots would not really grow to any size now, but you may like baby carrots, and you could enjoy some spring onions. Alternatively sow the overwintering type of what used to be called 'Japanese onions'.

Good luck.

[Gemizzel]

Would things like the kale, cabbage etc need protecting over the winter?
The bed is only small so nothing too big


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[teakdesk]

Agree with Bertie.

Yes, you can sow spring onions, I do mine in clumps to harvest as a bunch. Cabbage and kale OK without protection.

Have you tried slicing radish and adding to stirfries?

[Penellype]

The carrots will depend on what type they are. If you want some big rooted carrots like Autumn King then its probably too late, but I always sow Nantes Frubund Fastcrop in midsummer for an autumn crop. I've just sown one pot and will be sowing another in August. The packet says sow February to October, but I find the very late sowings don't really work.