August Gardening Guide: Essential Vegetables for Winter and Spring Harvests

As the summer winds down, many gardeners might think their planting season is over. However, a recent video by gardening enthusiast Louise, known as "Louise's Kitchen Garden," highlights several vegetables that can still be successfully sown in August, ensuring fresh produce throughout winter and into early spring. Louise, speaking from her garden, explains that August offers a crucial last chance to plant certain crops. She details two main categories: quick-growing vegetables for pre-winter harvests and hardy varieties that can withstand frost for spring yields. Among her top recommendations are potatoes, specifically for a Christmas harvest. "You could be eating these in your Christmas roast dinner," she notes, advising growers to use grow bags and move them into a greenhouse or cover them with fleece to protect against frost. She also emphasizes that once the foliage dies back, potatoes can be stored in a cool, dark shed for months. Carrots are another key August crop, but Louise stresses the importance of direct sowing to avoid root disturbance, which can lead to misshapen vegetables. She suggests fast-growing or baby carrot varieties that can be grown in troughs. For winter and spring harvests, brassicas such as kale, broccoli, and cauliflower are ideal. Louise, who grows these in pots due to limited garden space, explains that they can be harvested from December through spring. To combat pests like the cabbage white butterfly, she demonstrates a clever solution: transforming a cold frame lid from plastic to netting, preventing butterflies from laying eggs on seedlings. Finally, Louise recommends hardy spring onions like the 'White Lisbon' variety, which are excellent "filler plants" and act as companion plants due to their onion scent. Salad crops, including various hardy lettuce varieties, are also suitable for August sowing, ensuring a continuous supply of fresh greens even in colder months. Louise encourages gardeners to make the most of their space year-round and highlights the benefits of outdoor activity during colder months. She also shared a discount code for Simply Seed, clarifying it's a helpful tip rather than a sponsored advertisement.

Express.co.uk

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Gardening expert says grow these five vegetables in August - ‘last chance’

There are certain seeds British gardeners can sow now to have vegetables as early as Christmas and even into next spring.