Mark McIntyre wrote:
You can plant out Broccoli, cabbage, caulis, most other brassicas if you
get in quick.

Yeah, I sent off for some brassica plugs, but they haven't turned up
(probably stuck in the post) - I'm more interested in things I can
plant from seed.

You can sow onions and garlic from sets or bulbs any time
up till mid Nov.

Again, I sent for garlic and onion sets - the garlic turned up and
was planted, but no sign of the onions yet. We didn't have much
success from the overwintered alliums last year - got to spring and
they all got white rot. :-

Possibly you could sow root some veg from seed
(parsnips maybe? turnips or swedes?).

Hmm, I thought it was too late for them. I have a row of late carrots,
+ beetroot and some chinese leaf that I put in a month or so back, but
the sowing instructions I think finished in August so I figured I was
already pushing my luck. I tried turnips (or swede, can't remember)
and bok choi, with no success, think they were a duff batch of seed.
Not a single seedling (unless something munched them before I noticed)

Its a bit late for winter potatoes unfortunately.

Chickens keep digging them up anyhow. :-)
I did put a bunch of green chitted potatoes that were from this summer's
crop and had spent a couple of weeks in the fridge out in an old
strawberry planter last weekend, with an upturned hanging basket over
them to keep the birds off. not sure if they will survive the weather
or not. I may drag it into the greenhouse (if I can without doing my
back in!) once the tomatoes are out.

I have a load of brassicas already planted out, and I'm planting my

Did you plant your brassicas from seed? I had my best ever brassica
year this year (caulis came up lovely, for the first time ever, cabbages
are still going and are excellent, calabrese was so-so, but still going
in places, and the sprouts look like they'll be ok. Oh, and the purple
sprouting broccoli is looking hugely healthy for the spring!) but they
were all from seedings, not seed. pound a strip for the calabrese and
sprouting, 20p for 'we are selling this off cheap cos it's dying' a
strip from B+Q for the rest. Bought a load of the 20p strips in the
summer and potted them up for the school fair and I've seen the results
on other people's plots and they're all doing really well.

I've figured my problem with growing from seed in trays is the compost
I use not being good enough for seedlings, so I've invested in some
John Innes (1+2, iirc) for the new season. Previously I've been using
peat free multi-purpose, which I'll save for large pots and potting up
in future, I think.

onions and garlic this weekend. This will all be a spring crop, and then
I'll plant something else in the space for a late summer crop.

We're quite good with sprint/summer planting (sweetcorn, beans,
potatoes, courgettes, pumpkins, etc), but I just can't get my head
around pre-planning for spring. I think my enthusiasm drops off with
the weather. Although it's great weeding/digging weather atm!