Sowing for summer eating

Gillian Vine considers the pros and cons of starting vegetable growing in August.August is an awkward month in the vegetable patch.

If you got your planning right, there will be enough winter vegetables to see you through until the first of the new season’s crops are ready.

If you got it wrong, the carrots and cabbages will be finished and you’ll have two rows of parsnips to work through before they start to regrow, getting tough and woody, plus enough silverbeet to feed several households.

Obviously then, this is a good time to assess what worked out well and what should be tweaked to get the best from your patch.

With that in mind, there comes the fun bit, browsing seed catalogues to decide what is needed for the coming season. Before spending up large, sort seed on hand to avoid duplication.

Winter is the time to plant asparagus and rhubarb. Although unrelated, both are perennial plants that go on giving for years but although rhubarb benefits from being divided and replanted every few years, asparagus only needs to be weeded and given some seaweed fertiliser annually to produce crops for a decade or two.

Because of their longevity, it pays to make an effort in preparing comfy beds for them. That means clearing every trace of perennial weeds such as dandelions and docks, and putting down a base layer – manure for rhubarb, seaweed for asparagus – then nice, rich soil. Asparagus is spread out like a starfish and rhubarb positioned with the rounded buds pointing up. Cover with more soil, keep watered and these two vegetables will reward you by getting better every year.

August is a month when it’s tempting to go a bit mad and start sowing, often leading to disappointment through poor germination or complete failure because the soil just isn’t warm enough.

There are some vegetables that don’t mind going in early. Among those that can be sown directly into the ground in August are broad beans, peas and mesclun salad mix, but the likes of parsley and brassicas (cabbages, cauliflowers and their relatives) are best started in seed trays and planted out later. Onions are much easier to work with if grown in trays, for despite planting out seedlings being a pain, it is preferable to trying to thin and weed onions when direct-sown. Spring onions can be sown where they are to mature, as spacing is not so important.

Needing warmth and shelter to get started are all the members of the pumpkin/marrow family, tomatoes and melons, as these tender plants will be killed by frost, as will basil. An indoor spot or warm glasshouse works best and I have seen a north-facing sunroom so packed with containers of tender seedlings that there was no room for people to sit.

Many perennial herbs — thyme, lemon balm, oregano, rosemary and sage, for example — are toughies. Again, seed is usually sown in trays and — with 50 to 500 seeds in a packet — they’re good choices for growing for garden club stalls or car boot sales.

It’s time, too, to plan the spud crop, by choosing fast-maturing early, second early and main crop varieties. One commercial company offers 22 varieties and although not all will be available in all garden centres, most places have plenty of options. I applaud those offering loose potatoes, so it’s possible to buy just one or two if space is limited or you want to try a different variety.

Chitting is an old word to describe the practice of putting seed potatoes in a warmish, dry place so they start making stubby shoots before being planted out into the garden in a month or so. Egg cartons and trays are ideal for this chore and if you have several varieties, use a felt-tipped marker to write the variety name on each spud to avoid mixing them up when planting.

Large taties can be cut in two as long as each piece has one or two embryo sprouts.

With a growing awareness of the importance of self-sufficiency, even a couple of potatoes in a pot or herbs such as golden oregano in a flower bed will give some fresh homegrown produce and make a little dent in the ever-growing grocery bill.