Seed Sowing for Autumn

This week I'm planning to do some seed sowing to keep my containers full with plenty of tasty leaf crops growing on into the autumn and winter. Late summer is the perfect time to sow any vegetables which would readily bolt if grown in spring and early summer. Bulb fennel, oriental vegetables like pak choi, lettuce and salad brassicas are all likely to run to flower if they are grown too early in the year. This isn't always a bad thing - radishes left to flower will produce tasty, edible seed pods which can be eaten raw, and sometimes it's interesting to see vegetables in flower which would normally be harvested before they reach that stage of their life cycle. But for the most part, the flavour of leaf vegetables and herbs like mint becomes bitter and unpalatable when they are flowering.

I will be sowing the following seeds this week:

White Stem Salad Onion 'Feast' - bred to yield very long white bulbs, giving an onion that looks like a small leek.

Rocket - a variety bred to be mild in flavour

Land Cress - with a flavour similar to watercress, this salad plant is supposed to be very hardy, growing even in winter

Mustard Greens 'Osaka Purple' - dark purple mustard greens, very hot when raw but mild and tasty when cooked. Supposed to be very easy to grow and cold hardy.

Winter Pursane (Claytonia perfoliata) - easy to grow, hardy, produces crunchy, succulent leaves

Turnip Greens 'Rapa Senza Testa' - Another easily grown leaf crop, leaves can be eaten raw or cooked

Winter Butterhead Lettuce 'Winter Marvel' - this is a cold-resistant lettuce which will carry on producing leaf under some protection through the winter


I have already started growing some Giant Red Mustard which is ready to prick out into rows in a container. The seed I had was old but has germinated well. Also germinating already are parsley (flat leaf) and salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) which has a surprisingly delicious cucumber-flavoured leaf.

I once heard parsley described as more of a vegetable than a herb - it is certainly a nutritious addition to a salad or soup, but this often makes me wonder about the distinction we make between herbs and vegetables. Plenty of fruits and vegetables are hyped as 'superfoods', containing antioxidants and vitamins in abundance, with health benefits which would rival that of any herbal supplement.  While often seen merely as flavour-enhancers, the herbs commonly used in cooking contain compounds which help the body to digest and absorb the nutrients it is ingesting. Good health comes from eating as wide a variety of plant foods as possible, however we choose to define them.

The enjoyment for me comes from growing plants with which I can have more than a passing acquaintance. The intimacy of watching a plant grow from seed to maturity at close hand is only deepened when I can appreciate its beauty, savour its aroma and relish its flavour.