In the vegetable garden, regular sowings of quick maturing salads are fairly straightforward. A favourite maxim of mine is to sow radish every week and lettuce every fortnight. This way you should never be without; the trick is to sow sufficient amounts of each at these intervals.
There is nothing to stop you sowing short rows of each, rather than sowing long rows and finding that half of the crop goes to seed or is unused. Another solution with radish and lettuce is to sow mixed varieties.
Many seed companies present mixes of radish which contain both the rounder types, such as Cherry Belle, as well as the longer-rooted French Breakfast. Similarly with lettuce, a good mixture could contain not only the traditional cabbage type but dwarf Cos, such as Little Gem, as well as Iceberg or Webbs Wonderful.
As the season progresses, try sowing some of the smaller, quicker-growing variants; small round carrots such as Parmex or the quick stump- rooted EarlyNantes. These two, if sown after the first week of July are less likely to be attacked by carrot root fly and are also ideal for growing in shallow soils.
Late sowings of the baby beetoot, Pablo F1, are not only ready to harvest sooner, but this is a really tender variety. Similarly, small white turnips, such as Oasis F1, are delicious when small. Turnips have the advantage that, if left, the tops can be harvested as an alternative form of winter greens.
Extending the fruit season is not so easy, apart from selecting different varieties of apples, pears and plums that develop and mature at different times.
Nevertheless, varieties of perpetual fruiting strawberries, such as Calypso, will give you an extended fruiting season. Similarly raspberry Autumn Bliss can fruit from August onwards and in a good season even into late November.
In the same way that the vegetable season can be extended, successional sowings of hardy annuals can give you a regular supply of both colour and, if needed, cut flowers.
The classics include Cornflower, Clarkia, Godetia and annual Chrysanthemums, not forgetting that good old favourite, Eschscholtzia, the California Poppy, which once allowed to seed, seems to come back year after year.
Continuity of cut flowers from August onwards never seems to be so much of a problem, with Chrysanthemums, Dahlias and Gladiolus being the main stays.
Gladiolus Corms planted every three weeks from March until late May will extend the season even longer, whilst with Dahlias the more you cut the more you seem to get.
Often it is with the perennial or herbaceous border where continuity can be a problem and without doubt the issue can be solved culturally and simply by delivering what is known as the “Chelsea Chop.”
Although it sounds brutal, the flowering times of many herbaceous plants can be delayed if the growth is cut back fairly hard around the week of the Chelsea Flower Show in late May.
By cutting back at that time of year, the plant produces new growth.
