general advice needed with sowing

[b_cos_1_can]

this year so far ive tried growing sweet peppers and tomatos.
turned out ok but not great and im not very green fingered...yet!

ive bought some seeds of some other things id like to grow too but not sure what or how to do. i need really really simple detailed instructions. like what day to sow, how far apart, what to do to soil, when it comes to thinning what i have to do, how often and at what stage of growth ie 1 cm, 4 inches or falling out of pot! like having one of you here with me for a year taking me through it all!
oh and im not very patient so this will either kill me or make me more patient!

so ive got the following seeds:

caggabe greyhound
cabbage golden acre - primo 2?
sweetcorn f1 applause
broccoli purple spruoting
leek musselburgh
onion bedfordshire champion
corgette f1 zucchini
carrot early nantes 5
perpetual spinach - leaf beet
carrot autumn king 2
parsnip lisbonnais
brussels sprouts bedford-fillbasket

can i plant any of these now? how? soil/compost/pots/trays? do i need to prepare my garden soil at all? what am i doing?

if i could start with one this week and another next week which do i start with?

any help much appreciated, thanks in advance!

kat

(where is ged when you need him?)

[lancashire lass]

Hi Kat, You have a very long list of veg seeds and some are probably too late to sow now. There are also some that you may be lucky should you sow now, but if summer continues on the cool shade followed by a cold autumn and winter, it'll feel like you have wasted your time and seed if they don't mature in time.

sweetcorn and courgette are normally sown from April (indoor) or about June (outdoors) as they are very sensitive to frost which will definitely kill them off

leeks, purple sprouting broccoli and brocolli should ideally have been sown before mid-Julyish so that they will have grown enough in size to leave over winter (for picking sprouts and parnsip round about Christmas time, and brocolli for spring). The earlier you sow, the better the chances of a harvest.

cabbages are sown at different times of year (but usually from spring to mid-summer) depending on variety. I am not too familiar with the ones on your list

onions sow in early spring (personally I will be aiming for mid-Jan/Feb but no later than end March to ensure large bulbs unless you want smaller ones for pickling)

carrots can be sown in batches from spring until late summer, but the later you sow the smaller the carrot you'll harvest! (you have early nantes so from March outdoors depending on the weather - not much point braving a blizzard but better in a warm spring for germination!) I presumed autumn king 2 was a late sowing, but it could also mean a maincrop variety which takes longer to mature. All carrots are prone to carrot fly attack and there are particular times when they are active.

perpetual spinach I think is realistically the only veg worth sowing from your list but someone else might know better.

If you want an "idiots guide", I found the Vegetable Expert book (can't think of the author's name, but have a look on Amazon.co.uk)
very useful, with a guide of different diseases or pests, but watch out as some of the remedies are definitely not organic!

[heebiejeebie]

Cabbage might be worth a go for spring greens in March. Also, although it is late, PSB might be worth sowing too.

(since seeds generally come in packs of "How many?!!??" I go for trial and error)

[PK]

I would certainly support LL's recommendation of the Vegetable Expert by Dr D.G. Hessayon for both complete novices and for old hands. Very easy to follow and packed with information. Once you get going, though, nothing beats actual experience so I would get stuck in (probably next season now) as afterall what is the worst that can happen?. What you might find helpful to do is to write up a simply sowing/planting plan to remind you when to sow your seeds etc.

[b_cos_1_can]

i have a school time diary (july to july) so i was going to write it all in there because i had a feeling i might have to do it early next year!

i think it may be well worth buying the book and reading it over and over again over the winter...and then i can make notes in my diary as to what to do and when. ill look into the book!

thankyou for your advice on when to sow....but just for my mind for now....are they all to be sowed outdoors in the garden dirt? and should i do anything to the dirt over the next few months?

[PK]

Kat - I think the thing to do over the winter is to decide on what crops you want to grow (i.e those that you and your family like to eat) in the space you have available. Read up on these crops. Seed catalogues have a lot of useful information about varieties, for example, early potatoes, main crop potatoes etc. Reading up seed catalogues and planning for the next growing season is good fun and can be inspiring.

Keeping a plan in the form of entries in a diary is an excellent idea, particulalry for successional crops like lettuce which you would want to sow on a regular basis to keep a supply going through the summer.

What you will find over the years is that you will have seedlings ready to plant in a bare area where a crop has finished, for example, if you have cleared broad beans by the end of June you could have ready french beans sowed in modules/pots ready to take their place.

Some plants can be sowed in the ground or they can be started off in pots (as in the example of French Beans above). There are some seeds that don't work in pots such as carrots and need to be sown directly into the ground. Personally, where I can I start most things off in pots or modules as I find best results for this but this can be more expensive because of the compost etc needed and they also need more attention.

There are a few things that can still be sown now (spring greens, chinese leaves).

Over the winter you can prepare the ground by digging in compost/manure.

The main thing is that you have already made a start this year and you can build on this.

Happy growing - Phil

[Mo]

You are right to start now.
If you were to buy seeds and a book in Spring the first thing you would read would be
"On ground which has been well dug the previous Autumn"

This means that you should dig your ground over now, and get rid of the horrid weeds like dock, couch grass, buttercup, bramble. Remove as much of the roots of these perenial weeds as you can. There are also weeds that come from seed, they are only fairly nasty. Dig out a line of soil in spadefuls, go for a sit down, then when it's dried out a bit, bash it and crumble it up to pick the weeds out.

If you have sticky clay soil then leaving it in lumps over winter will let the frost work on it and improve it.

If your soil is not too weedy you could plant a Green Manure like rape which will stop the weeds growing and you dig it in, inthe Spring to fertilise.

[manda]

www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/veg_planner.asp

www.50connect.co.uk/50c/gardenvegetablelibrary.asp

Hi Kat
I had a look on the net (coz I'm upside down and my planting guides are for that) but the top address gives you a pretty good look through the year and the next one just gives you loads of stuff about everything...so if you have an hour or years you can have a read !! They are both related to the UK
Hope that helps
Manda