[New shoot]

I've got some stuff in already - PSB, leeks, kale and swedes, but this year has focussed the mind.  I've got cabbage and more kale to plant out, plus will sow some chard and perpetual spinich soon to overwinter, but the struggling summer crops mean I have more room than usual and am seriously looking to fill the plot this winter.

Anyone else thinking along the same lines?  There have been a few threads talking about crop failures for farmers and the price veg will be before long.  I'm usually a bit lax about the winter crops, but am very keen this year with a view to being much more self sufficient than usual  

[BabbyAnn]

I'm thinking along similar lines re: summer crop failure almost inevitable (too wet and too little sunlight) - my outdoor tomato plans have already been ditched as I just know they'll get blight so why waste time and effort planting them out, sweetcorn are faltering although surprisingly my winter squashes and outdoor cucumbers seem to be taking off but whether they'll produce fruit is another matter.  I do seem to be on a rescue mission every time I go to the plot these days, salvaging stuff before they rot and having a lot more empty beds than I'd like to see.

Then with the recent news of the price of food going up got me thinking.  It makes sense to grow lots more brassicas because they seem to tolerate this kind of weather much better.  I'm not too confident of the leeks as rust is a problem, and sadly not a lover of chard/perpetual spinach but mustard/Chinese greens and winter hardy salad crops are a possibility.

Also, sowing some green manure is high on my list too. 

[Sean.]

I'll be doing daikon, Chinese cabbage, Brussels, and broccoli, cabbages, shungiku, carrots, leeks n onions, and some beans of whatever variety catches my eye. Spinach and caulis. Oh yes, and your kale sounds good too.

[Plot74]

I was going to plant more winter greens this year along with my leeks and swedes .
It just will not fit in with my crop rotation so will have to get back to the drawing board and make better plans for next year.
At the moment the only thing I can walk on are the paths the ground is soaking up all this rain even the fox that cuts across the plot is sinking four inches into the ground .
John

[compostqueen]

I would put the need for food above any rotation plan!  The veg plot is about growing food, not serried ranks of well ordered veg.  Or is it just me 

[mumofstig]

I don't think it hurts to just sow what you can, now and again and to hell with rotation plans.
As long as I don't follow something with exactly the same thing, I don't think it matters too much.
weeds grow in the same places year in, year out -don't they

[compostqueen]

That's my rotation plan in a nutshell. As soon as crop rotation is mentioned I go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz    It's all about the food   

[Sean.]

Oh I have mizuna growing round the daikon, and the soybeans are sat in the same row as the corn !

[Goosegirl]

If our summers are going to be like this from now on  :blink: winter veg will be a must as we will have empty spaces instead of lovely summer veg.  Mmmm...you've got me thinking here about food versus crop rotation. I have 4 raised beds, each 16'x4' and I rotate crops, but find I don't make best use of all the beds. While my sprouts are growing, I could sow beetroot, carrots etc, in between, though I don't dig the brassica bed the winter before so it is nice and firm, and pots I rotate, and onions, and I will have to remember what I planted where the previous year so I don't plant the same thing in the same place the next. Not sure what to do. With my crop failures, I have room for PSB and kale which are potted on but are not growing very much at the moment. I think I need a bigger greenhouse!

[mumofstig]

My seed list for sowing later this month/August is - Kailaan, Mizuna, Komatsuma, Tatsoi, Winter purslane, spinach, chard, corn salad, (all Joy Larkcom recommendations plus  the Seeds of Italy lettuce/radicchio mix, that I grew last year.
Some are for outside, some in the greenhouse.
 
I'm also going to try an August sowing of calabrese to grow on in the greenhouse -  Alan T says I can

[Goosegirl]

I'm also going to try an August sowing of calabrese to grow on in the greenhouse -  Alan T says I can

That's me decided then! I'm going to throw the rule book away and, apart from not bothering too much about crop rotation in the future, I'm going out to sow some calabrese in my greenhouse to plant there when my sweetcorn and dwarf beans have finished, and I might just bung in some carrots and beetroot in pots too, plus cabbage, kale, PSB - whatever!  :happy:

[shokkyy]

I'm going to try August/September sowings of a few different brassicas for sticking in my polytunnel. My polytunnel book recommends it so I'm going to give it a try.

[compostqueen]

I got a free packet of cabbage for sowing now with my issue of KG mag 

[New shoot]

Hey! we're back in the game!    What have we got to lose after the season so far  

I've visited the plot today but too wet to do much.  Got a big bit cleared the other day for the plants I have growing on, but we are getting autumn veg packs in at work this week, so shall raid them and have a look through my seeds to see what catch crop stuff I have  

The one postive amongst stunted sweetcorn, beans not doing much and courgettes grimly hanging on, my celeriac is doing really well.  I usually struggle with that and vowed never again after last years pathetic attempts, but got a pack out of the veg seed pass the parcel on here and had another go.  Glad I did now  

[Goosegirl]

Hey! we're back in the game!    What have we got to lose after the season so far  

That's the spirit! Having spent all day indoors because it was supposed to bleat down here today and hasn't,  ???so I didn't get my front verge strimmed which badly needs doing but is wet again from last night's rain (if I got the strimmer out from the shed and plugged it in and got half way through..? ), I am not giving up. At least it's dry in the greenhouse!