Planting for Winter

I love summer on the allotment, the plot is filling out with plenty to pick and a promise of more to come. The weather has been so hot, too hot for me to visit the allotment during the day. When temperatures soar I prefer to visit early to late evening when it’s cooler and not so busy.

Although it’s nice to kick back, relax and admire the fruits of my labour, to ensure the plot keeps on producing food well into winter and beyond the hand trowel cannot retire to the shed just yet.

I planned sowings of brassicas for planting in summer with the aim of harvesting towards the end of the year and beyond. Brussels sprouts and winter cabbages are in (a little later than I would have liked due to having Covid last month) along with purple sprouting broccoli for picking early to late spring when little else is available. Turnips sown into module trays for autumn/winter use will be planted out soon along with another sowing of kohl rabi. I have also sown cauliflower to plant out towards the middle of next month to try to get a spring crop, I didn’t sow a variety specifically for spring harvesting as I’ve done in previous years, choosing instead to use a general all year round type. It’s an experiment so we shall see how this goes. I do love experimenting.