The sound of the veg patch in June is riotous. There are marmalade hoverflies, buff-tailed bumblebees and cabbage white butterflies flitting by, eyeing up the (netted) brassica bed. After a sluggish start to the season, it finally feels as though the garden is kicking into gear.
While there are many plants that you sow once a year (tomatoes, chillies, winter squash and aubergine, to name a few) and nurture until they’re ready to be picked, there are a number of crops that you can – and should – sow more often than that. Taking a successional approach to growing – a few seeds sown every month or so – ensures that you have a regular yield of ready-to-eat crops instead of all of your harvests arriving at the same time.
This week, I’ll be sowing another round of lettuces (cooler than the greenhouse as lettuce germination can be spotty in warm conditions), so when those I planted in spring inevitably bolt, I’ll have replacements. Lettuce is an ideal crop to have extras of, as they can be tucked into any empty spot where a plant hasn’t thrived or has been razed to the ground by a slug. Beetroots also lend themselves to successional sowing because for most, a steady supply of harvestable roots is better than having a lot ready to be pulled up at once. Being able to harvest little and often is preferable to being overwhelmed with a glut (unless you’ve got the time, energy, skills and room to preserve crops that lend themselves to that process).
I’m also going to sow some additional courgette and cucumber seeds so I have young plants ready to take the place of the first succession. If the weather is on my side (depending on when the first frost arrives to kill them off), I’ll be harvesting their fruit as late as October.
Another crop I’ve found to be worth re-sowing around now is climbing beans: like courgettes and cucumbers, they can crop well into autumn, but the plants that went into the ground in early May will have run out of steam by then. I don’t bother taking the older plants out of the ground or attempt to unravel them from their support structure as this can be challenging and disruptive. Instead I just put the new plants next to the old ones and let them grow into the tangle of vines, occasionally pruning out the ageing, yellow leaves and being extra diligent when picking as there’ll be even more heart-shaped foliage for the beans to hide behind.
I especially like this approach to sowing and growing because it can help us get the most out of a modest growing space. With a little planning, you can have a productive crop in every pot and patch of soil throughout the seasons.
