h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tips on How to Grow Winter and Spring Vegetables

A gardener's activities don't stop once the last apple falls from the boughs. There's plenty to do even when the last of the summer vegetables and fruit have been harvested, before the ground has frosted over or become waterlogged and the last leaf has blown away. For a start, you should cut or burn off and rake away all trash from the previous crop including weeds and their seeds. Then comes the soil preparation for plantings in late autumn and early spring.

Good crops only come from well aerated and fertile soils. Heavy clay soils particularly benefit from autumn cultivations, before they become waterlogged, digging and inverting to at least 6 inches so burying the weeds and setting the ground up proud to aid drainage and drying out to make tilth production easy at planting time. The best tilth on clays is produced by nature frosting the ground busting up the clayey clods. The lightest textured soils (i.e., light loams and sands) are more flexible and primary cultivations can be delayed until nearer planting time. Even on the lightest soils inversion by ploughing or spade digging can be beneficial in burying the weeds.

Autumn planting of vegetables and salads is practicable in areas which don't get very hard winters. Broad Beans are a favourite for autumn planting, but not before November in southern England or they get too soft and lush making them liable to be killed by frosts and susceptible to Botrytis and other fungal diseases. Good varieties include Super Aquadulce for autumn sowing moving on to Witkeim Manita early spring and Bunyards Exhibition for spring sowing.

Hardy lettuces Valdor and Arctic King can be sown outside on light soils in August and September for harvesting in early spring.

Garlic can be planted outside from October to March. Good UK varieties include the new Early Wight and later maturing Solent Wight. The variety Elephant has a huge bulb with mild flavour.



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