This is the time to plant those wonderful winter root vegetables. Carrots, Parsnips, Swedes and Turnips can be planted now as seeds directly where you want them to grow. put down plenty of fresh seed and keep that seed wet while waiting for germination. Seed must be fresh, particularly for parsnips. Old seed has germination problems particularly for these vegetables.
Asian turnips and radishes are great to fill the garden with while you wait for the long growing root vegetables to get going. You can plant asian pink and white turnip and the Japanese Hakurei, which is purple ad white. These can be harvested from golf ball or finger size to larger and the leaves can be eaten so there is little waste. These turnips have a milder in flavour. Best raw in a salad, roasted or steamed the Asian turnip adds a different flavour to your cooking. These are lots of ways to use them. Roasted is particularly delicious as it intensifies the flavour.
You can keep planting your leafy greens too. Chards and Choys, if you can keep the snails and slugs under control, will continue to do well even if the perpetual rain gives them a bedraggled, drooped appearance. They will grow well especially if weather predictions for a mild Autumn come to pass. This can delay the onset of our frost season and give these greens more chance of continuing through the season and into winter.
Happy Growing!
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