What can I start to grow in the vegetable garden in August? Sowing seeds and growing food in the summer months.

In the summer and for the last couple of months we are busy harvesting the food that has been growing on the allotment, then we reach a point where we notice that there are areas of bare earth. From experience we know that if we leave these areas that have been harvested and are now empty ( mainly this is the place that we used to grow the potatoes) weeds will start to grow rapidly and cause hours of work for the future. It really does make sense to grow something in this patch on the vegetable plot and to get it cleared and planted up as soon as possible.

There are certain rules that we stick to when growing our own vegetables, however irritating they may seem at the time they are commonsense and have stood the test of time.

The main rule I have when growing vegetables is the one based on the crop rotation concept.

Crop rotation has been used for hundreds of years and there is a good reason to follow it, it really does help to reduce the risk of disease in the vegetables that you want to grow. Crop rotation in the vegetable garden does not cost you anything, except a bit of time and thought and sometimes you want to plant a vegetable in an area and you know you cannot because you grew that or something similar (from the same group of vegetables) last year or a few weeks ago. It is really worth sticking to the crop rotation concept if like me you refuse to use chemicals in your vegetable garden.

When you have a space in  the vegetable garden in the summer months you have two things you can do.The first is to plant it up with a different group of vegetables from the previous crops or sow a green manure crop. I will write about crop rotation in the winter months, when  I have more time but a search with the term will provide lots of useful information, the R.H.S have an excellent web-site and the BBC have useful  videos on different gardening ideas.

I will write more about  green manure crops and what you can plant in the summer time soon, watch this space for green manure crop information and what you can grow in the summer in the spaces on your vegetable plot. You can also access previous articles I have written there is a information word  'cloud' at the bottom of this page and I also have links lists here on my grow-your own-vegetables web-site.