Last Chance: Sow these 7 Crops in June

June already?! Surely it’s too late to sow crops now! Believe it or not, there’s still plenty you can sow now. Not only that, but it’s actually a great time to start your follow-on crops to plug those gaps in your garden and make the most of your available space, giving you almost double the harvests.
In this week’s episode, Ben explains how…

If you missed last month’s sowing guide, there’s still time to sow some of these too…

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The garden is finally starting to look a bit fuller. All that effort earlier in the season is really paying off. This is an incredible moment in the gardening year, I just love it. But the show’s not over yet because now’s the time to make even more sowings to keep the harvest coming for longer and goodness me have I got some absolute beauts for you today! Brilliant brassicas, including this weird wonder – any idea what it is? Carrots that’ll keep you crunching through winter, a trio of truly tremendous leafy herbs and if that’s not enough, a vegetable that’s as eyelid flutteringly gorgeous as it is tasty, you’ll see. Summer broccoli or calabrese is one of the real joys of the summer garden. Here’s mine planted a few weeks ago and they’re beginning to take off now. But to keep the party going into winter and beyond we need to sow some sprouting broccoli. This winter hardy favorite is absolutely delicious lightly steamed, it really is a royalty amongst veggies. This is one brassica it’s well worth starting away from where it’s going to be grown, that way you can overlap crops, so while the previous crop is still in the ground this one can be starting off already. This way you can overlap crops by as much as two months. That’s super savvy space saving. The plan is to have the sprouting broccoli go in where my fava or broad beans are currently making this a really A-rated succession crop. Enough of the chat, let’s get on and sow and I’m just sowing into this all purpose potting mix here and making little depressions ready for the seeds. Now I’m going to sow just two to three seeds per plug here and then I will thin them out to leave just one seedling in each once they are all up and then a little more mix just to cover the seeds over before finishing off with a label so we don’t forget what we’ve got here. As I said, we’ll eventually have just one seedling in here and once we can see the roots coming out to the bottom here, that’s usually a good sign that they are ready to plant. However timings don’t always work out perfectly, there might be a bit of cooler weather that holds back the crop I’m wanting to get out so this can go in, in which case no dramas, I can just pot it on into a container this kind of size or something like this to grow on until the ground is ready. No seasons are the same and this gives that little bit of flexibility. Then once they are good to go out I will space them about 16in or 40cm apart in each direction and I should be harvesting those first sublime spears in early spring. So what on earth is this? Well, I’ll pause the video here for a few seconds to give you a moment to think about it and please don’t be shy to shout it out if you know. Well done to you if you said kohlrabi. This rather, let’s face it, obscure member of the brassica family comes from the German for cabbage, kohl and turnip, rübe. in fact most of the brassicas that we know and love are in fact the same species just bred for different characteristics. So Kohlrabi for its swollen stem, cabbage for an enormous terminal bud, brussel sprouts for enlarged side buds, kale for bigger, better leaves and broccoli and cauliflower for enlarged flower buds and they all cross with each other. It’s just remarkable that never fails to blow my mind. Like all brassicas Kohlrabi is a cool season crop, so if you get quite warm summers, early in the month might be your last chance to sow it but you can always pick things up again in the autumn. Now they can be sown into pots and then the seedlings carefully transferred into their own plugs but seeing as I’ve got space here, I’m just going to sow them in exactly the same way as my sprouting broccoli next to them here, to fill up the rest of the tray. So it’s a few seeds per plug and again I will thin them out if I get more than one seedling so leave just one in each plug and then again just lightly cover them over. Give them a bit of a water to start them off. Now in this lovely warm weather I reckon this broccoli and kohlrabi will be up within as little time as a week and just like the broccoli, I might pot on the kolhlrabi if the ground isn’t yet available and they will eventually go out about 10in or 25cm apart in both directions. Both my broccoli and kohlrabi will need protecting from those pesky pigeons and butterflies using netting, but certainly in the case of our alien looking kohlrabi, it won’t be long before I’m tucking in to beautiful shaven stems in a salad or perhaps kohlrabi fries or chips. Root vegetables like beetroot, carrot, rutabaga or swede are main stays of the winter larder. Now all this talk of winter almost feels a little bit taboo when summer’s barely got started but if you can bear it, it’s worth looking ahead because now’s the time to sow roots to enjoy over the winter. Carrots suitable for overwintering or lifting to store are usually the biggest varieties of all. Look out for a main crop variety described as good for storage, here are some popular ones and sow them into good loose soil because these roots can develop into whoppers. Carrots are best sown direct and because it’s now summer and that much warmer I’m watering along the rows first to get the water exactly where it’s needed around the seeds. Now this also means that I’m only wetting the rows themselves and not the soil around it which will help to avoid weeds. This of course works better in drier weather which it is now. Okay let’s get on and sow and like so many of our seeds I’m taking a small pinch and then scattering them nice and thinly here cause eventually we want them up to about an inch apart so we don’t really want to sow too thickly. You see half a pinch has done it, so I’ll put the rest back for now and then just cover them back over like that. Now I won’t actually water along here again for a few days because they’ve got that moisture around them already. But of course, if it is much warmer and much drier then I will keep this well watered because we want to keep it consistently moist around the seeds so we get good even germination. These main crop carrots will need to be thinned if most of them do pop out and I will thin as I said, to about an inch or possibly up to two, that’s 5cm apart just by pulling out the little plantlets to leave them at their final spacing and then once I’ve done that, I’ll give the whole area a good water to knock back the carroty scent and avoid attracting the local carrot fly. Now if you’d like to know more about growing carrots then do check out our Carrot Growing Masterclass video but only after we’re done here of course. Leafy herbs bring so much to the kitchen table don’t they and I’ve got three rubber stamped, must grows ideal for sowing at the start of summer. First up is dill. Now dill is a fantastic annual herb for sowing directly where it’s needed . It’s a fast grower and it’s ideal for making pickles of all sorts of sizes and shapes and its lovely feathery foliage really turns heads too and if you let it flower it’ll really attract beneficial bugs. Dill is also a fantastic companion plant to so many of our other vegetables that we grow, including tomatoes, so I figured I may as well plant them next to these recently planted toms. Now I’ve just lightly fluffed up the soil here to receive the seeds and then I’m taking the slightest pinch like that and then just scattering them over the lightly forked soil here. We’ll get a nice little ribbon of dill here, and then just fork it back in and then to finish, a little bit of a water. Now these seedlings pop up really fast, so I reckon I should get my first harvest within as little as two months, perfect for perking up poultry or adding a little finesse to fish. Well what next? Parsley of course. I love growing this from supermarket herbs which I just split apart, pot on, grow on and then plant out like this little lot here. But this is a sowing video, so let me show you how to do that. Parsley needs no introduction of course, just like dill this will attract in the beneficial bugs if you let it flower in its second year and this lot are about to go into flower. In the meantime however, you’ll get to enjoy lots of lovely leaves. Now this time I’m sowing a flat leaf type of parsley, it’s quicker growing and I reckon is more versatile in the kitchen. Now dill likes good sunshine, but parsley can cope with sort of dappled shade like we’ve got in this bed here. So I’m sowing them about a cm or half an inch deep and then it’s the same old format, a scant pinch of seeds nice and thinly along the row like this and then just sort of pinch close the row. Now these guys can take a while to germinate, up to six weeks in fact so it’s going to be important to keep this area nicely watered and then once the seedlings have popped up, I will thin them to leave about 6in or 15cm between each though I may take some of the excess seedlings and plant them elsewhere. And our third herb, ideally sown later on in the month, is cilantro or coriander which looks very much like flat leaf parsley, can you tell the difference? If you’re in a hotter climate then cilantro can grow quite well in the shade and might actually prefer it and I’m going to sow it today in this shallow container here just into some all purpose potting mix. I like to sew my coriander or cilantro after the summer solstice and the reason for that is that they respond quite well to daylight getting shorter. They don’t bolt or flower prematurely. And talking about the days drawing in again is quite a dreary thought at this early time of the year. Anyway, so I’ve got my pot filled and I’m going to space the seeds quite closely this time about an inch or what’s that, 2cm apart, to grow almost like a micro green so they’re harvested quite young. So I’m just going to space the seeds, scatter them nice and evenly across like this and now I’m just going to cover them all over with a smidgen more compost. So the trick with these is to keep them nicely moist and if it does get really quite warm and hot which it can do here, I will move them into the shade to continue growing and I’ll keep them well watered and because I’m harvesting them quite young and tender as more as baby leaves I reckon I’ll get my first cut within about six weeks I reckon. Some vegetables are downright tricky including this picky princess here bulb fennel or florence fennel. Now I find this often bolts before it’s had a chance to properly bulb out but not this time. I say bulbs but what we’ve in fact got here is another case of swollen stems with a texture a bit like celery and a gentle aniseed flavor. This delicate and dainty darling is worth persisting with, it’s great served with fish or shaved with the mandolin to serve over a salad, my absolute favorite way to enjoy it. What I’ve gone for is a really fast growing variety which I think should be a lot less likely to bolt as well especially if I keep it well watered. So by delaying sowing till it’s kind of t-shirt weather as well then I think this will be a lot less likely to bolt. And I’m doing exactly the same thing, I’ve got my sifted or sieved compost and this time again, two seeds into each. Now I could sow into a nursery pot and then transfer the seedlings into plug trays but these guys really hate root disturbance so I think this is one that’s definitely best to sow direct into the plug trays. Of course you could sow it in the ground where it’s to grow and then thin them out but again I’m wanting to overlap my crops by starting this off while the ground it will go in is currently occupied. So I’ve got my two seeds into each plug there I will thin them to leave just one in each by snipping off the excess seedling and then let’s just cover them over with more of this potting mix here, that should do it. I’m going to give these a good drink and of course label them and set them on their way. Once these filigreed leaved divas are up I’ll grow them on and then they’ll get planted out about 6 to 8in or 15 to 20cm apart in both directions and they’re going to go into a lovely warm sunny spot into a well-drained soil that has been enriched with the usual caress of compost to help them form those beautiful bulbs, or rather swollen stems, you know what I mean. There’s loads more to look forward to over the coming months and I’d hate for you to miss out on any of the horticultural heroes we’ve got coming up so do check you are subscribed. In the meantime let me know below what you are sowing this month. I’ll catch you next time.