July is a beautiful month in the vegetable garden and I love to take a step back and enjoy things as much as I can this month and try and enjoy the benefits of all the hard work that I put into the vegetable garden this year. Seed sowing continues but at a much less frantic pace this month. The focus is on successional sowing and looking ahead to the months to come.
Beetroot – We’ll make another sowing of beetroot this month and make some extra sowings of our ‘Bulls Blood’ variety which is primarily grown for the delicious leaves. Whilst we do try and make a final sowing in August too this can be a little hit and miss so I would recommend July
Calabresehttps://heritageorganicseeds.com/product/organic-calabrese-green-sprouting/ – We’ll be making a final sowing of Calabrese early this month in the hope of a delicious autumn crop. It is getting late in the season now but if the weather stays on our side, then we may be in luck!
Carrots – It isn’t too late to sow your carrots. Our Nantes 2 carrots can be successionally sown right through to mid-summer.
Chard – This gorgeous, colourful crop is a must have in our vegetable garden. A sowing now will provide some gorgeous colour to the plot and the plate come autumn
Coriander – I cannot get enough of coriander so I will continue to sow this like it is going out of fashion! I love it as a garnish to homemade curry and on my Huevos Rancheros. I just love this herb.
Fennel – The best time to sow fennel is said to be after the summer solstice so we’ll be making successional sowings throughout July to give us a delicious crop in the autumn.
French Beans – July is your final call for French bean sowings. The warm weather will get them off to a swift start and they should put on plenty of growth and give you a gorgeous harvest before the first frosts.
Kohl Rabi – Sow plenty of Kohl Rabi this month and it should take you right through to autumn and maybe even until Christmas
Salads – For our July sowings we will still sow our summer varieties but will start to think ahead to autumn and plant some oriental leaves like Mizuna and our Chinese Mustards. I absolutely love the oriental salad leaves. They are packed full of flavour and really come into their own when the temperatures fall again at the end of the summer.
Peas – For podded peas then July will probably be your final sowing. That being said, I always like to push the boundaries and nobody said you can’t sow later in the year although perhaps later sowings will be more aimed at harvesting pea shoots rather than podded peas.
Turnips – It is business as usual for our turnips this month. With the nice summer temperatures, they’ll be ready to harvest in no time at all!
Happy Sowing!