Episode 31 - Show Notes & Advice

Episode 31 advice sheet | Autumn sowing

There are huge benefits to sowing lots of hardy annuals now — while the soil is still warm and moist and light levels are still pretty high — so you get good growth before the winter cold sets in. 

The benefits are 

It’s calmer in the autumn than spring – so a nice time to have a job for the season ahead. There’s lots to harvest, and you’ll be busy with that, but a bit of sowing is a perfect job for September Saturday morning.

Good to think of things to go with your tulips etc which you’re also planting soon – so while the ideas for combinations are fresh in your mind.

You’ll get plants 3 times the size with certain varieties which benefit HUGELY from autumn sowing. Particularly true of the 2 below, but this applies across the board to a lesser extent. If an annual plant is hardy enough and can survive the winter outside, it will benefit as it gets its roots down good and deep and so is then less vulnerable to drought or wind the following spring and summer.  

• Ammi majus (and to a lesser extent Ammi visnaga)
• Cornflowers
• Earlier flowering 
• Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ – in cold places, still worth sowing soon and protect it in a cold frame (potted on into 2L pot) as then will be in flower with your tulips in April. 

Better disease-resistance 

Antirrhinums – much better rust-resistance

Sweet peas – don’t get mildew to the same extent as spring sown

You’ll have things to look at through the winter – foliage, not flower admittedly, but still good to have e.g. Ammi leaves, Cerinthe, Larkspur. 

What to sow

CONTAINERS - Our favourites

Viola ‘Tiger’s Eye Red’ (or could buy as seedlings if you don’t want to sow) and ‘Phantom Sorbet’ and ‘Heartsease’ (this is the quickest and easiest to germinate). 

Schizanthus ‘Dr Badger’ (if you have a greenhouse) because they’ll flower inside in March/April. Were hugely popular with the Victorians – to stand in for pelargonium collections on smart plant theatres, looking glamorous at pelargoniums downtime. 

Linarias – just the same as schizanthus. And even if no greenhouse, worth growing for a sunny window-ledge

CUT FLOWERS

It’s all the hardy annuals – here are my top ten for sowing soon. 

Ammi majus

Ammi visnaga

Centaureas/cornflowers

Consolida (larkspur) best sown direct as they have a tap root, so don’t like being transplanted.

Daucus dara ‘Purple Kisses’ best sown direct as they have a tap root, so don’t like being transplanted.

Daucus dara – wild carrot – as above

Salvia viridis ‘Blue’

Cerinthe

Calendula ‘Indian Prince’

Calendula ‘Snow Princess’

VEGETABLES/EDIBLES

Kale 

Arthur is passionate about even big kales such as ‘Redbor’ as pot toppers. Give you islands of kale all through the winter to look at through the winter. 

• ‘Red bor’
• ‘Curly Scarlet’.  
• Chard 
• Ideally sown in August but if get going quick early Sept is also ok. 
• Bright Lights’ 
• ‘Lucullus’ even better from autumn sowing.
• How you harvest these is important – which is just picking the outer leaves, always leaving the heart intact. This creates a funny little tree-trunk at the base of the plant where you’ve removed the outer leaves and this lifts the crown of the plant off the cold, wet soil. And makes the plants hardier.
• Hardy winter salads 
• Lettuce
• Black-seeded Simpson (crunchy)
• Merveille de Quatre Saison (soft)
• Salad leaves
• Mizunas
• Salad Rocket
• Mustards e.g. Wasabi, Red Giant
• Hardy winter herbs
• Flat-leaved parsley
• Coriander
• Chervil
• Edible flowers
• Nasturtiums
• Viola ‘Heartsease’ (again – see above)
• Calendulas are worth a try, particularly ‘Snow Princess’ and Arthur is sowing ‘Neon’ in a cold frame, potted on for a pot topper to put out in March to flower with tulips.
• Spinach
• ‘Medania’ – crops will till first hard frost
• ‘Rubino’- with beautiful crimson stems and veins. Wonderful as a cooked/wilted leaf and small leaves also fabulous raw

We plant half under glass – because we have it – and half out in the garden. Then if you have a severe winter, the under-glass ones thrive. Whereas if the weather is bright and mild, the under cover ones might bolt early, but the outside ones are there to rely on. 

BIENNIAL SEEDLINGS

Don’t forget now is a good time to buy and plant these too – foxgloves, wallflowers etc