#Do carrots grow well in cold weather plus#

Till the soil at least a foot deep to make sure it is light and loose and can drain extremely well.

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It doesn’t need cloching and, in winter, avoids any pests and diseases. A drill of each, 3 metres long, will provide ample pickings for a family of four. There’s only one variety of perpetual spinach, but you will find numerous forms of swiss chard: white-stemmed ‘Lucullus’, multicoloured ‘Bright Lights’ and, my favourite for flavour, red-stemmed ‘Fantasy’.Īugust sowings can be too slow to bulk up in short summers, so squeeze a row in now, keeping it well watered until it’s established. A single row of perpetual spinach or swiss chard started off now will stand all winter, only becoming inedible as it runs to seed in April. Leafy beets, sweated down in butter and liberally dressed with black pepper, make a nutrient and flavour-rich side dish. Don’t risk root-fly attack prevent it by covering the whole row in fine, insect-proof mesh (such as Enviromesh). Once sown, cover with earth and firm it down well, but don’t water in. Sowing in dry soil can be tricky, so make your drill slightly deeper than normal (4-5cm) and give it a thorough soaking. ‘Autumn King’ types are renowned for winter hardiness, so opt for these if you garden alongside or above the Pennines otherwise, any type seems to work. The result? Delicious baby carrots from October to April. Here’s a nifty trick: if you sow carrots later in the summer (ie between now and early August), the cold weather will halt their growth. If you sow carrots now, you should have delicious baby carrots from October to April. The odd hoe and water till the weather cools down is all the attention they need. Drop a leek plant into each one, water it in well and then cover the bed with fine, insect-proof mesh to protect against leek moth and allium leaf miner.

Make holes 10-15cm deep with a dibber (or a stick) at 20-25cm spacings. An open, sunny site deters fungal problems such as rust.

Leeks are planted “bare-root” (ie with no compost around their roots), so, if you are given a clump, water it well then thin into single plants. It’s too late to sow them this year, but have a word with allotment holders – they are bound to have some spare seedlings. Water in dry summer spells and hoe occasionally until they get established. Push 5ft-tall bamboo canes around the edge of the bed, top with an upturned plant pot and cloak the lot in butterfly netting.

Plant them in an open, sunny site with caulis, cabbages and kale 40cm apart each way Brussels sprouts 50cm apart and the sizeable purple sprouting at 80cm widths. Plug plants (professionally raised in greenhouses) are ideal for first-time growers. While these long-season crops should have been sown back in April, it’s still possible to get hold of plug plants from garden centres and nurseries – look for F1 hybrid varieties (cauliflower ‘Boris’, for example, or purple sprouting ‘Red Fire’ and cabbage ‘Tundra’), because they’re more vigorous.

#Do carrots grow well in cold weather plus#

Photograph: Juliette Wade/Gap PhotosĬauliflowers, cabbages and kale, plus brussels sprouts and sprouting broccoli, come under this label. If you want to plant cabbages and other brassicas now, buy a vigorous plug plant.