Wealden Times | WT185 | July 2017 | Interiors supplement inside

Garden
Summer crops can be prone to bolting – that is,
running to seed before you have a chance to harvest
them. Make sure that they get adequate water and sow
bolt proof varieties of things like beetroot, coriander
and spinach.
Fast maturing vegetables will give you a harvest
in just a few weeks, but this is also a good time for
sowing crops to harvest in the autumn and winter.
Salads, mange tout peas, baby carrots and dwarf beans
are quick croppers, while a row or two of kale, Swiss
chard, broccoli or spring cabbage will provide a harvest
during the colder months.
Pests can increase to plague proportions in the
summer months and decimate crops, so make sure that
you protect them with fine netting or fleece. Grow
carrots in raised containers to keep out carrot fly.
Tender plants like beans and courgettes must be
harvested before the first frosts arrive and need about
10-12 weeks from sowing to cropping.
Peas are useful to grow in succession – there’s a fast
one, aptly called ‘Meteor’ and then there are mange
tout varieties, which are eaten as young pods.
Dwarf beans are faster than climbing beans because they
don’t have to make a giant beanstalk before starting to
flower and form pods. Sowing to harvest time should be
around 10 weeks. Make sure that beans are well watered
in dry spells, especially when they’re forming their pods.
You should just get away with a sowing of courgettes
now too. Remember that courgettes and beans are
tender, so the latest you can sow for a harvest before
the frosts is probably July. Some years it stays mild until
December, but frosts can come as early as September…
July is generally the last month to sow carrots for an autumn
crop. Choose smaller varieties – there are quite a few stubby
ones around – ‘Chantenay’ is quite a good one, or a quick
growing variety such as ‘Amsterdam Forcing’. There are
even tiny round carrots, almost like orange radishes. Small
carrots can be eaten whole and don’t need peeling either.
Credit: FreeImages.com/ Beverly llyod, Rico Jensen
Salad days
Lettuce needs cool, light conditions in which to germinate.
They will grow in partial shade, which may be a better
place to sow it in summer, as lettuce is prone to bolting
in hot, dry conditions. Sow in succession if you eat a
lot – a pinch of seed every four weeks or so. Loose leaf
varieties like Salad Bowl, Lollo Rosso, or salad mixes
that contain a combination of leaves are useful, as you
can treat them as cut-and-come-again crops – just cut
and more leaves will grow from the base of the plant.
Rocket does what its name suggests, but may bolt
(run to seed) in very hot conditions, so might be
better sown towards the end of the month.
151 wealdentimes.co.uk