Mind the Gap – Keep Your Sowings Going

Posted on 25. Jul, 2011 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

At anytime of the year, but especially late summer, a few gaps start to appear in your vegetable plot.

These gaps could appear for a number of reasons like:

Vegetables have been havested,
Sowings haven’t all germinated properly,
Seedlings haven’t survived,
Lost plants due to pests and diseases,
Thinned spaces not grown into.

Seed Tin

These gaps will need to be filled as quickly as possible so you can maximise on your vegetable growing space and keep enjoying those harvests.

If you have a plot plan, you will have a clear idea of when to harvest and have a few ideas for what to sow next.

If you are not so organised or only look at your plot plan when you want to sow something (like me) then its not too late to do a vegetable plot “stock take”.

How To Do a Vegetable Plot “Stock Take”

Draw the shape of your plot onto a piece of paper,
Draw on blocks and label or shade areas in to show vegetables currently growing. Optional: If you want to go into more detail by counting your vegetables, make notes on your paper.
Assess your gaps, see how much room you have to sow new vegetables. Ask yourself questions like have I got enough room to sow 1, 2 or 3 rows of carrots? or have I got enough space to sow spring cabbages?
Check my Vegetables To Sow Now and Next guides for inspiration on vegetables to sow in the gaps in a particular month.
Check your seed box or tin for vegetable seeds you can sow now or order more seeds (stock) for new sowings.
Find out which month your current growing vegetables are due to be harvested and write down a few seed sowing options to replace them with.
If you can’t decide what new vegetables to grow, just sow a few more rows of what’s already growing so you can have staggered harvests throughout the season (also known as successional sowings).

This vegetable stock take can also be simplified for pots and containers so you can have an idea of what to sow next.