Gardening group help

[katkatkat]

Hello,

I'm hoping you can give me a wee bit of help. We run a gardening group with the clients at my work. I'm still in my first proper year of planting so learning myself and can't answer all their questions.

One of them only has a few beetroots and lettuces left in their raised bed. Is it too late to plant anything else? I know they could put in brassicas for harvest next year (maybe?) however they will have left by then so we're looking for things that will crop before Christmas.

Also, they've got a few beds with strawberries that I think were newly planted this year. None of them have produced any flowers but they've thrown out tons of runners. Should we leave the runners or remove them and is there anything we can do to encourage them to flower?

Thanks

[burnie]

Welcome Kat, not easy to get stuff growing now , you could have a go at trying to get some of the strawberry runners to grow roots, maybe in pots. Then when they are firmly rooted you detach them from the parent plant, would keep your clients busy.

[Penellype]

I think for things to crop before Christmas you are really looking at leafy greens for salads. You could get a crop of spinach, and things like Pak Choi, Mizuna, Namenia and other oriental greens will produce a supply of leaves really quite quickly. These are all nice in salads at the baby leaf stage.

You could also sow peas to crop as pea shoots - these do best if started off inside to prevent mice eating the seeds.

[Kirk]

Not sure of the accuracy but I suspect they know better then I do but the other day I received an email from Moreveg and they have an August sowing guide. The same information is on their webstir.

Basically it is green, turnips are in there as are carrots - does say carrots will need fleece protection, personally doubtful of carrots. Mine have been in since March and nothing is yet big enough to pull. Some of the seeds say 10-12 weeks and I seem to need 10-12 months. Actually considering just forgetting carrots next year.

Anyway look at their site and scroll down to the August growing guide and see if anything is of interest. As it is for a gardening group you could copy and paste the list into a simple document and print it off for othes to peruse and looks good.

Veg to overwinter are a possibly idea, but all I can think of is onion and I gave up with onions, sure that what came out managed to be smaller then the sets that went in.

Slight caution, I see you are in/around Edinburgh, conditions there will be different to many like myself who are somewhat further south.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Mesclun to produce mixed salad leaves matures in about 8 weeks and is cut and come again

[Zelenina]

Radishes can be sown in late summer and autumn. Not just the small salad radishes but also bigger winter radishes that are used as a cooked vegetable, e.g. long white Asian daikon types, China Rose, Red meat/Watermelon radish, long or round black radishes, Munich beer radish etc.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Yeah! it really is getting a little late in the season for most things, and agree with others it really needs to be the speedier things for leaves, but a lot of the herb family can be sown pretty much all year round and crop quite quickly, the likes of basil, sorrel, chervil, coriander etc , cress, water cress, oh and radicchio, that's a good one.

[katkatkat]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions