What can I Sow Now Early to mid-spring (March and April) This is the time to focus on sowing things that are hardy or need a long growing season. Even though we may have some nice days the weather can quickly turn chilly and the soil is still cold so hold off a few more weeks on the more tender things such as sunflowers, beans and courgettes. Even if you do get them growing, they will sulk in cold weather and later sown plants will soon catch them up. Veg
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Late spring (late April and May) Longer days and stronger sunshine have begun to warm up the soil. One clue is that the weeds have started to germinate and grow--this is a sign that it’s a good time for plants to be growing! Late spring can bring warm, summer-like weather but don’t be fooled--the weather can still turn chilly and the last frost date is still a few weeks away. You can start sowing more tender things now but be prepared to protect them from chilly nights and late frosts. Hardy crops can be sown directly into the soil now, or you can carry on sowing them in pots to plant out once they are growing well. This is a busy time for sowing but don’t feel pressured to get it all done at once. Many things sown at the end of this period and even into summer will still be growing away into the autumn when we often have warm and settled weather. In April prioritise cool-weather crops such as salads, spinach, pak choi and peas. Then you can turn towards warm-weather crops such as beans, courgettes, sweetcorn and pumpkins. Sown in May these will grow quickly and will need very little protection until they can be planted out. May is also the time to start sowing winter veg that need a long growing period such as sprouts, winter cabbage and sprouting broccoli. Annual flowers that say on the packet that they should be sown in March and April can very often be sown in May as well--you’ll just get your flowers a bit later. If you’ve already started to sow tender plants indoors or in a greenhouse or growhouse, don’t rush to plant them outside. You’ll want to ‘harden them off’, which means gradually getting them used to outdoor conditions. Bring them outside in the day but keep them protected at night. Do this for a week, leaving them out longer each day, and then plant them out in late May after checking the forecast for frost. Veg
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Text and photos by W Crowder 2020. Developed for Harbury Seed Share and Earthworms School Gardening Club. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. |