Growing fruit and vegetables – July

Growing fruit and vegetables – July

It’s now getting late in the year for sowing and planting, but there is still time for lettuces, chicory, endives, and other salad leaves as well as for fast-growing varieties of peas, beetroots, and carrots. If you’ve now harvested all your broad beans, garlic, onions, and shallots, there may be enough space to transplant any Brussels sprouts, cabbages, and cauliflowers that you’ve raised from seed in pots.

Brussels sprouts, cabbages, and cauliflowers

July is the time to sow cabbages for next spring, if you choose the right variety. If space is tight, sow them in a temporary seedbed and transplant them later in the year. Now is your last chance to plant out any Brussels sprouts, winter cabbages, and autumn cauliflowers that you’ve been growing from seed.

Broccoli

It’s late for sowing or planting broccoli now, although certain cultivars may still give you an autumn crop.

Florence fennel and kohlrabi

Sow a few more fennel seeds this month for a crop in the autumn, before the first hard frosts. And some more kohl rabi, too – they should then last you through until Christmas.

Peas and French beans

This is your last chance for sowing or planting out peas and beans. Any later and the pods are unlikely to develop before the onset of frosts.

Leaf vegetables

Continue to sow kale, Swiss chard, and oriental leaves such as mizuna, mibuna, chop suey greens, Chinese broccoli, and mustard greens. They are hardy enough to last well into autumn.

Leeks

Finish transplanting or “dibbing in” leeks raised in pots, modules, or temporary seedbeds. They should all be in their final growing position this month.

Lettuces and other salad crops

Succession sow more lettuce, rocket, land cress, corn salad, and other salad leaves for an ongoing supply in the autumn.

Root vegetables

Sow your last batch of beetroot now. Late varieties of carrots and turnips can still go in next month.

Endive and chicory

Continue sowing both sugarloaf and radicchio forms of chicory. It’s probably your last chance to sow or plant out endive.

Source paddocks-allotments.org.uk