July (and beyond) in the Kitchen Garden

You may be eagerly waiting to harvest your crops, but there are still a few things that you could plant in July and it’s a good time to get some autumn veggies going for a cheeky head start.

First off, if you want to grow any summer veggies, now really is the time to get them planted before it’s too late. You can easily still plant lettuces and leaves (a Quick Growing Salad Collection would be perfect) and there’s nothing to stop you planting some extras like peas and beans, leeks, carrots and sweetcorn. But they do need to go in the ground in the next week or so to be in with a chance of maturing before it gets too cold.

Now let’s talk about Brussels Sprouts. Plant them now for a Christmas crop! Yes, if you plant them now they should be harvestable through December and on into January. They are part of the brassica family, so follow the planting advice for brassicas and they should thrive.

Meanwhile, you need to get out into the veg patch to see what you can harvest this month. All sorts of things will be cropping up, from berries and currants to salad leaves, peas, beans and courgettes. It’ll be a real feast!

In a week or so, it’s a good idea to get a headstart on some veggies that are traditionally planted in early autumn. Keep an eye out for more on this from Rocket Gardens, but you should be thinking about popping some cabbages and kales in the ground soon.

In August, there’s not a huge amount of planting to do in the kitchen garden, but you can still plant herbs and a few autumn growing brassicas while you’re busy harvesting everything else. Then it’s on to September when you can start planting up for the winter – spring green, spring onions, kales, winter leaves and a few others can all go in the ground in Sept/Oct so watch out for more on this over the next few weeks and don’t forget to order early so that you can plant sooner.