Second Cropping of Vegetables

Many of us rely on a single crop of vegetables for the season, and we tend to plant them early to get those first tender veggies after a hungry gap in May. This means that plants are getting old & tired by September, fit only to help build a better compost heap. The June issue of Kitchen Garden magazine has an article about later sowings of popular vegetables which might well be worth pursuing after you’ve dug those 1st and 2nd early potatoes. I show below those crops which were sown outdoors in this article, though other varieties were grown in a polytunnel and did equally well.

1. Peas – Hurst Greenshaft

Sown on 1st July and cropped well, delivering a very good harvest between 10th September & 10th October.

2. Broad Beans – The Sutton

Sown 1st July, grew well with great plants but poor numbers of beans in pods. An earlier sowing on 1st June was considered more likely to succeed.

3. Runner Beans – Red Rum

Sown 15th July and grew rapidly. Good yields of fresh, young beans from 12th September to first frosts in November.

4. Courgettes – Defender, Ambassador & Golden Zuchini

Sown on 15th July and delivered good, tender courgettes from the end of August until November frosts.

5. Chard – Bright Lights

Sown 1st July and gave a wonderful harvest for October, November & December.

There is also a tip on getting late potatoes from your normal purchase of seed early in the year.

It was admitted that the Autumn weather was very good for the trial but I think it’s well worth a go to get extra leverage from your plots.

Philip Drew