Hi
I live on the south coast and my garden is warm south west. Usually my small greenhouse is mostly empty over winter but as I am investing in a bigger one can anyone suggest what vegetables/salad I might be able to grow late autumn/winter in it and when would I start the seed?

Thank you
Gardengnome

Hi Gardengnome,

I usually sow some hardy lettuce in autumn and they keep me in salad most of the winter, although unless you have some form of lighting very little actually grows in December/January. Things just tick over and then grow like mad when the days start to lengthen again. Lamb's lettuce and spinach also do OK and swiss chard. I find that sowing into trays and planting out in the greenhouse border most successful in spring for beetroot.

You can get a nice early crop of peas - I usually put in a few mangetout, and carrots do well. I also put about 10 tubers of early potatoes in in January or February and cover them with fleece if frost is forecast. I've had my first boiling of some Shetland Black potatoes today. They are a second early, but had decided to send out shoots very early, so I planted them in the greenhouse as they wouldn't have lasted until it was time to put them out in the garden. Also first earlies planted in January will be ready to eat and the plants cleared by May when you want the border for everything else.

Parsley also does very well and you can crop it all winter from a summer sowing.

A very useful book for this is 'Four-Season Harvest' by Eliot Coleman.

I did lose quite a few lettuce this winter as I just put in ordinary summer ones which are a bit too tender and are more susceptible to greenfly etc, but I still had enough to supply a few salad leaves most of the winter.

Radish, rocket and endive are also good.

Most things do best from a late winter/early spring sowing here, but we do get a lot of frost. In warmer parts of the country you should be able to crop salads most of the winter.

Hi G. Gnome

Good advice from Plumpudding.

To save time thinking (for me that is), here's what I sowed and grew over winter in the polytunnel last year, with sowing dates.

25 August 2007

Winter Lettuce
Endive
Chicory, Green and Red
Miners’ Lettuce (Claytonia)
Wild Rocket
Flat-leaf Parsley
Japanese Spring Onions


2 September 2007

Pak Choi
Japanese Mustards
Spring Cabbage
Kale
Cavolo Nero

All the above were sown in modules and planted out as and when ground became available.



12 October 2007

Salad Rocket

Sown direct into the border.

There is some useful advice on endive and chicory HERE
and on pak choi and other oriental brassicas HERE


PS All did well over winter, and the Cavolo Nero and Kale are still in and cropping - and tying up space!

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Alan

Thank you so very much Alan and Plumpudding. Your info, sowing dates and advice is brilliant. Just what "keen novice" like me finds so useful. It is great to find so much help in this forum.Thank you!

Best wishes

Gardengnome

When growing in greenhouses through winter you must make use of all available light which means keepingthe glass clean inside and out. Not that easy but if you go to www.superspray.co.uk you can see a superspray garden feeder. It clips to your hosepipe and will dilute detergent as you spray. it has a clean water turn for rinsing too. You can ditto with Jeyes fluid for disinfecting the inside of the house. All you need to do is gitate the glass with a softish broom and rinse off. Keeps your feet on theground so its safer and you dont get a soaking either. Costs about £10 mail order. good peice of kit. I wash me car with it too.

Thanks Vegman for your tip. I will have a look at the product.
best wishes, Gardengnome

Hope you like it. Just a tip if your glass is a bit on the green side, after you have sprayed on your detergent, leave it for a few mins to 'work'. people have a tendency to apply then scrub straight away. let the soap work for its living.