This is the guidance I use for when to sow things if I want to harvest during autumn and winter. It's a modified version of the chart from this page - https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-libr...uling.html

It's already too late for some crops like carrots, but there's plenty you can sow for harvesting over winter if you grow under cover. I don't grow everything on this chart e.g. minutina, cress or rocket. 

The tiers separate crops by how reliable they are to grow during that part of the year, though I disagree with lettuce or chard being unreliable (yes, a lot of lettuce usually conks out from root rot some time in January/February, but chard is a trooper and carries on until April). 

My ranking (from best to worst) would be: chard, spinach, parsley, kale, lettuce, claytonia, coriander, mizuna, mibuna, komatsuna, pak choi, tatsoi. Even the 'worst' crops still provide you with a decent harvest over winter, they just go to seed quickly if we have a warm February. 

I've not yet managed to get spring onions to a reasonable size to harvest during winter, but varieties like Winter White Lisbon will stay outside happily through utterly rubbish weather and then provide you with excellent harvests in spring. 

Parsley isn't on this chart, but I grow it and coriander in the greenhouse over winter very successfully. 

Outdoors I only grow lamb's lettuce, spring cabbages, overwintering Japanese-type onions and spring onions.

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Happy Birthday. Hope you have a wonderful day. 
Have a slice of courgette cake.   
   



I left the link to the recipe on it just in case anyone wants to give it a go.
I might as I use her recipe for rhubarb cake and it’s stunning

I have 2 veg patches with a say 1.5m (5ft) grass path between.  Among other things (sweetcorn,  onions & courgettes) there's a row of DFB. This morning about 9am I walked around to check on things and in the middle of the grass path was an uprooted DFB. It had come from about 3ft in from the end of the row and was deposited in line with the row of beans.  I think it might have happened during the morning rather than overnight as it hadn't wilted much. It wasn't nibbled and beans were attached and untouched. I'm puzzled.  I'm wondering whether pigeon, bunny or cat might have got entangled.  There are no other sign of nibbling so I don't think I've got another rabbit.

I haven't seen  many wasps this year? Have you? 
Apparently, there aren't as many as usual....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c134621devzoaround

Can anyone tell me what this says please?

    I’ve got purple, I’ve got pink flowers , I’ve go to 60cm . The rest I need help with please.

It’s one of these      .

You know by now my Honeymoon tomatoes were afflicted by BER.  Looking online it seems its a physiological problem where the plant cannot take in sifficient calcium probably due to erratic watering.

Here's the question, probably for TMTT.  I'm on alkaline soil but not chalky, more flinty.  Would it be any use to incorporate some calcium carbonate into the soil or when watering? Or is it just a question of monitoring the water more carefully?

   

Your August Butterfly spotting Challenge is here.

I saw a Gatekeeper yesterday - wonder if its still in the GH?

I've acquired a number of empty spice jars - the ones with holes in the lids to shake the spices or herbs out. 
What do you think of using them for sowing small seeds? 
I have difficulty sowing seeds thinly, certainly can't sow them in a row, its not in my nature.   Tomorrow I will experiment. 

I'm sure these jars have other uses too. Let me know if you think of any, please.

Hopefully you’ll be able to follow my thinking! So you can help.

I have these      5m long 31cm wide. The plan is to keep them full length. cut them in half length ways (not all of them, som have other jobs). Use them as sheltered , slightly raised beds between my tunnels. If you can imagine the hosepipe in the next photo is the sides of my tunnels. I can make the gap between tunnels bigger if needed. The more I do that the least space I have for normal raised beds the other side.
    I have lots of these cradles for them to sit in. My first plan was to cut the cradles at the red lines and have a small pyramid type arrangement. With top cradle sitting on top of the bottom pipe beds. As the cradle is only 6cm wide I wouldn’t lose much growing space. Also the pipes once cut in half and are in the cradle sit 6cm higher          . Hopefully these 2 photo helps paint that picture, but possibly not. My next thought was is that top pipe going to shade the bottom ones too much? 
Considered a teared style not sure how to construct that. One thing I probably should have mentioned sooner is, it’s all very heavy! Before compost gets involved. Also considered use 2 at the same level. 

I have these other bits available in the construction if you can come up with anything.
          Unfortunately all the small pipe has been cut down to about 2m lengths

Any ideas, suggestions? Would be great. My brain is starting to hurt!

In the summer my garden shoes are the cheapest children's black canvas gym shoes. P and I are both of southern descent but he calls them plimsolls and I call them daps. He didn't understand what daps were.

Anyone else know what daps are?

I think it may have come from he name Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls.