I highly recommend growing early and late crops under some form of cover and for an overview of the different types of cover and their benefits, start with my guide to growing under cover. The simplest of covers is fleece and you can find out more in my guide to growing under fleece, then maybe consider adding a few polythene low tunnels or cold frames, finally perhaps upgrading to a polytunnel or greenhouse.
However there comes a time of year, when you can quite happily grow outside without needing any protection from the cold, wind and rain and this guide provides details of suggested first sowing dates for planting outside, without protection.
I still however recommend that you start your seedlings in modules trays, germinate in those seeds in the house and depending on the weather keep them in the house or a greenhouse for the first few weeks, before planting. You can find all of the details in the basic gardening skills section of this eBook.
<aside> 💡 Note that some of the plants on this list are perennial and often propagated from cuttings, for these the suggested sowing date is actually a suggested planting date!
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The following summary provides just suggested sowing dates, for all of the details, including planting dates, suggested varieties and target harvest dates, click on the growing guide links. Note also that if the sowing month has a 🔆 after it, that means grow lights will likely be beneficial (but not necessary) for the first few weeks and maybe months of life. If the sowing month has 🔆🔆 after it, then grow lights are highly recommended. Click the guides for much more detail!
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In this section I’m going to take the list above and break it down by the seasons. I will rank the plants by how well suited they are to growing outside, considering factors like yield, cost, reliability, taste, health etc.
Lots of lovely veg that you’ve lovingly grown and harvested over winter will rapidly go to seed in spring. Asian greens, rocket, claytonia and lambs lettuce go first, then kale, brussels and kalettes, followed by lettuce and spinach.
Although there’s plenty of veg that you can sow in spring, very little will actually be ready for harvest until early summer, so that period from mid spring to early summer is called the hungry gap. There are a few things that really help out during this period, purple sprouting broccoli, green garlic, spinach, lettuce, radish, salad onions, spring cabbage and brassica florets (especially kalettes) are your best options. Note though that most of these are started in summer (except the green garlic) and are often neglected at that time.
When growing outside, without any protection from the elements, you need to me more selective, every plant really needs to count, because you probably only get one or two successions, rather than 4-5 if you grow under cover.
So the ranking in this list matters more than it does for other growing environments. I’ve picked out 12 fruits and veggies for special attention, because they are high value, reliable, tasty, prolific and healthy. These veggies are (not in any particular order) :