Spotlight Magazines Spotlight on Mansfield South, Nottingham June 2015 | Page 12

Spotlight Magazine

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Never Too Late

ardening is an ongoing affair and
though timing is important, we often
become overwhelmed by a sense of being
‘too late to plant’ by some arbitrary date.
Often we bandy dates around as though
they were written in stone.

My granddad insisted all potatoes and
spring beans had to be sown by Good
Friday, and the gooseberry bush had to be
in leaf before the runner beans were sown.
But in fact each season is different and
garden planting dates are more flexible
than traditional wisdom would have us
believe! The good news is that it’s not too
late to plant a great garden, even in June
and July.
While it is true that fruiting plants like
tomatoes and peppers really need to be
set out now, many other summer producers
will grow even more quickly from seeds
planted in early summer, when the soil is
already well warmed.
You’ll be surprised how fast seeds will
come up and explode with growth:
cucumbers, beans and winter squashes,
pumpkins, beets, carrots, chard and
scallions, are all suitable for June planting.

I usually start seeds every month, finishing
sowing summer-producing vegetables in
late June. In July and August, I move on
to seeds for autumn crops like spinach,
radishes, kale, leeks, peas, broccoli, more
mild mustards and some pak choi.
June is not too late for flowers either. I’ve
planted marigolds, sunflowers, cosmos,
zinnias and nasturtiums at this time of
year. That way when the first annuals have
burned out by late summer I have a lovely
smaller flush of blooms to enjoy.
If you really want to get ahead, June and
July are also good times to start seeds for
perennials and biennials to bloom next
spring.
Sow seeds in a protected seed bed, and
then transplant seedlings in the autumn to
overwinter. Next spring you’ll be rewarded
handsomely with garden full of glorious
colour.
Enjoy your garden.
Rachel Leverton

It’s a great time to start a crop of ‘cut and
come again’ salad mix and mild mustards.
You can also plant heat-andsun-loving herbs like basil,
marjoram, chives, oregano,
thyme and sage. Just
keep the seed beds
well moistened.
And even if you were
super-efficient and
your early-planted
beans, squash, chard,
carrots and basil plants
are growing well, June is a
terrific time to start a second crop
to have ready for a late summer harvest,
when the first crops of these staples have
finished up.

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