This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
What next after onions & garlic are harvested?
Happyflower
Posts: 10
in Fruit & veg
Growing veg for the first time this year. I have a small garden with just one large raised bed dedicated to veg. Is there anything I can be sowing in pots now ready to plant out in the bed after harvesting my onions and garlic? (planted garlic late Oct and onions mid March, not sure exactly when they'll be ready).
If it's too late to sow anything now what should I do with the bare ground after harvesting? Last year I bought a packet of rye grass which I was told made a great green manure (didn't actually sow them), is this true?
All advice gratefully received 
Thank you
0
Posts
You can definitely plant the fast growing things like lettuce, spinach, mustard and various herbs including chives, coriander things like that. Potatoes you can keep sowing through to the end of August.
It's a bit late for most things, but I've sown this late, you just end up with smaller plants and not much yield. I've started tomatoes, pumkins, courgettes and sweetcorn this late, last year.
If you're able to make a poly-type cover or glass cover (maybe not this year but in the future) you can extend the growing season a tad, by about a month. Mainly because many plants, at the end of their cycle, need heat to ripen fruits and veg, not actual sunlight at that point. Eventually, about October time, the shorter days make the covered beds/green houses too cold for most stuffs.
Thanks Mel Mcvride and Logan! I think I might leave one bit for the fast growing salady stuff and with the rest of the space I think I'll have a go at winter cabbage etc. I also like the idea of a sort of poly-tunnel and might try that next year, perhaps at the start of the season and treat it almost like a cold-frame?
Logan- The space where the winter cabbage would go isn't free yet untill onions and garlic are harvested, can I sow cabbage in pots to get them started now?
Many thanks for your advice
Yes I agree - Brassicas although I would pop plants in now as opposed to sowing unless you want early Spring Broccoli or cabbage, as I don't think that sowing now will mean that you can get a crop before Xmas. Remember the whole brassica family need a firm soil and if you have planted onions in a light soil, you may need a touch of top soil to anchor them in. You could follow the onion theme by planting half the bed with leeks and the other with late summer salad leaves as Mel M suggests. Either way there are tons of things you could still pop in.
Great advice biofreak, thank you. Now I'm sold on the idea of Leeks as I think this would be easier for me to do, with minimum soil preperation before planting (an also 'cos I love 'em of course). I really should have planned this far ahead back in Feb when I was drooling over the seed catalogue...then I would have been able to sow everything myself instead of buying in. Ah well, lesson learnt!
Note I said plant the bed with leeks. It would be too late to sow now - unless someone else knows otherwise?
Yes, thanks biofreak, will be buying plants
Just in passing - You mention that you only have one raised bed. Don't forget crop rotation and avoid growing onions there next year. I grow mine successfully amongst flowers in my border beds alternate years to give veg plot a break.