Sow some late veggies now

Sow some late veggies now to keep your harvest coming till well into autumn and early winter. Although you’re picking like mad right now as the harvest builds to a peak, don’t be too quick to turn your back on your seed packets just yet. 

Canny gardeners know that today's generosity will dwindle after a month or so and turn into the late August doldrums if you're not careful, when all your summer veg start running out of steam and the pickings drop away rapidly. So keep the crops coming by doing some late sowing now, so you've got plenty of young plants to take over from the main summer harvest and give you extra helpings of scrummy home-grown veg into autumn and beyond.

Yields of climbing French beans, for example, often start to peter out by late summer: but with quick- maturing dwarf types like 'Tendergreen' waiting in the wings you'll still have fresh beans in late September. Other late sowings to try include fast-maturing ‘early’ peas such as 'Douce Provence', Turnip 'Tokyo Cross' and parsley and coriander for late-autumn flavour. Sow rows of kale, oriental greens and spinach and you’ll squeeze in a fresh crop of baby leaf salads, too.