5 seeds you can sow in July.
It feels like we have been blessed with a rather long and extended summer already with the glorious sunshine we have been having since spring, but we actually are only just slipping into the the high summer months of July and August. With temperatures hotting up and the sowing and planting season seemingly behind us, it’s easy to keep our focus on maintaining the crops we have growing and harvesting already, but there are still lots of seeds you can sow this month to make sure you have a steady harvest over the coming weeks and months to see you into autumn and winter.
Beetroot:
Beetroot is a brilliant crop to grow in any kitchen garden or vegetable patch and July is the perfect month to continue your successional sowing of this delicious root vegetable. Succession sowing is where you sow seeds for the same crop in intervals throughout the growing season to make sure that you have a steady supply of the crop throughout the season. Typically, you may succession sow 2 - 4 weeks apart depending on the crop and for beetroot I usually sow 4 weeks apart. To sow beetroot seeds simply make a shallow drill approximately 2 cm deep in the soil with a trowel or dibber and thinly sow your seeds along the drill. Cover the seeds with soil and water them in and you should have more beetroot in a few weeks ready to store or use in your kitchen.
2. Runner beans:
You may have already planted out runner beans and be watching them wind their way up your planting supports in your garden. The red or white flowers provide a wonderful display of colour while we wait for the beans to grow and you can enjoy that display a little longer while extending your cropping season. You don’t need to worry about sowing seeds in modules in a greenhouse or on a windowsill at this time of year, you can direct sow your beans right where you want them to grow. I’ve just done a second sowing of beans along the arch where my early peas have just finished and I’ve multi sown these, meaning I’ve sown more than 1 seed in each hole. For runner beans I have multi sown 2 bean seeds in each hole.
3. Carrots:
As with beetroot, carrots are another root vegetable that can be sown this month as part of your successional sowing. If you’re sowing carrots, remember that the thinner you sow the seeds, the less thinning you will have to do as the plants grow - it can be easy with the small size of carrot seeds to over sow in the space you have but remembering to sow carefully means you’ll save yourself time in the future with thinning, which cards on the table, is one of my least favourite jobs to do in the garden!
Carrots are best sown in a shallow drill, in the same way you would sow beetroot seeds. The only difference I make in the sowing process for carrot seeds is to water the drill before sowing my seeds as the water can wash carrots seeds away given how tiny they are.
4. Brassicas:
July is pretty much the last month that you can get winter brassicas in the ground to see you through the winter. The best brassicas to plant now are varieties of kale such as cavollo nero, curly kale or dazzling blue kale. You can also sow collard greens which are similar to kale and are a delicious leafy green vegetable perfect for those autumn stews and roasts! I’m direct sowing my brassica seeds at the allotment but as they are so quick to germinate you could bring them on in the greenhouse if you have on, but make sure that you are keeping on top of watering in this heat otherwise it won’t take long for them to shrivel into a dry, crispy seedling.
5. Salad leaves:
As with our root vegetables, salad leaves are also a vegetable that you can continue successional sowing this month. With the heat, it is possible that your earlier sowings of lettuce may have bolted already. The lettuce plants that I planted out in late March have gone to seed already and so I’m getting ready to sow another round to see me through the coming weeks. There are varieties that you can sow now that are more heat tolerant and less likely to bolt if we continue to have hot weeks with no rain like we have been having. Romaine lettuces like 'Parris Island' and 'Jericho' are heat tolerant varieties, as are Butterhead types like 'Buttercrunch' and 'All Year Round'. You could also try sowing leaf lettuces such as 'Black Seeded Simpson', 'Red Sails', and 'Oakleaf'.
