Sow at the Summer solstice

Carrowkeel roof box at summer solstice read more here at www.newgrange.com

The longest day of the year has just past which always makes me a bit sad thinking of nights drawing in slowly but surely from here to September. You might not feel so despondent if you could be out on these long evenings but the opportunities are few and far between with wind and rain battering the country (again!) and evening temperatures dropping down low enough to warrant lighting a fire. Please weather, pull it together for July and August! I have plans for BBQ's and hammocks and eating apples in September!

Midsummer marks an important point in the sowing calendar for us gardeners. It's the time when we sow what some people call "follow on crops". These crops follow on from the first harvested vegetables and extend the season into Autumn and winter. So if you want to be eating Kale in December you sow it now. Biodynamically speaking Today and tomorrow are leaf days (but at 2pm tomorrow their is a fruit window until 9pm tomorrow night) Sunday and Monday are fruit days, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday are root days, while Friday and Saturday are flower days.As the slugs are particularly bad at the moment I'm only sowing root crops directly into the ground, I'm sowing all the rest in seed trays to be transplanted out when they reach a decent size.

What you can be sowing now;

Peas
Climbing beans
herbs; chervil, dill, coriander and parsley
lettuce and salad leaves like Mizuna, Mibuna
rocket
autumn carrots, parsnips and swedes
beetroot to store overwinter
calabrese(broccoli from the supermarkets with the big head)
cauliflower
Perpetual spinach
Spinach
chicory
chard
Kale
Brussels sprouts
Florence fennel
Radicchio
Kohl rabi

If you have a tunnel and you plan on doing new potatoes for christmas remember to keep some of the first earlies you dig up and put them in storage until August when you can chit them. You will be sowing them in September in the tunnel.

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