YvanAug 17, 2025

What surprising thing could I be sowing now, mid August, aka late summer, in Norfolk England (roughly sorta USDA 8b, but interested in varying takes on "late season" [edit to be less specific])

In this area, in a "good"* year, we can still be harvesting ripening tomatoes in October (in a polytunnel). So there can be up to about 2 decent growing months of time ahead.

We have outdoor bed space and understory space around the polytunnel tomatoes.

Today I will be sowing dwarf french beans outside, which have a good but not guaranteed chance of giving us a crop depending on the weather. That possibly isn't too surprising though!

I am thinking "surprising late season" mainly, though also "surprising over-winter" is interesting.... like I was fairly recently surprised to discover coriander grows well under cover in UK winter months. (Coriander is actually slightly frost tolerant!)

* aka: harbinger of impending climate doom racing our way...

#Allotmemt
#GrowYourOwn #GYO
#Gardening

Show threadgroff 🇺🇦Aug 17, 2025
@yvan Mizuna, mibuna and pak choi for the more exotic stuff, radish (either for the roots or Baverian/Radish Munchen Beer Radish for the tasty seed pods, it might still bolt in the poly tunnel), swiss chard and spinich.
Show threadYvanAug 17, 2025
@geoffl we have munchen bier radish seedlings growing at the end of a bed :) hopefully they have time to go to seed (if not then their roots are also edible at least).
Show threadgroff 🇺🇦Aug 18, 2025

@yvan Took a look in the garden for other unusual edible stuff, not to plant now just unusual.
Pictures below are Daubenton perpetual kale, verigated nasturtium, peppermint chard (because it's pink and white) and tomatillo.

Not pictured: Japanese wineberry, pink blueberry, Chilean guava.

Show threadYvanAug 18, 2025

@geoffl tomatillos we grow every year these days (2 varieties this year), and similar red/white streaked chard, always nasturtiums but I don't think I've done a variagated variety yet!

I am yet to attempt any sort of "perpetual" leaf brassica(-like)... though I have heard much about perpetual kales and broccoli-type plants. We need to build some sort of "brassica cage" first and do have a plan for that using an old greehouse frame we have.

We don't have any of those fruits and need to up our fruit game really... (also a case of implementing suitable protection I think).

Dunno what our own "most unusual" is... could be okra, though we have never had much success with it (keep trying), we grew orach once but are not fans, but now every year it grows itself so always some around, it's kinda pretty at least. Not so unsual but get generally grow eastern european gherkin varieties instead of cucumbers (as they're both good for pickling and are nice small cucumbers.)

Show threadYvanAug 18, 2025

@geoffl we grew NZ Spinach one year and love it, but it was very slow to start this year... we do have some in, but far from cropping size but it may take off in the autumn... I prefer this over normal spinach. We grew red-stemmed Malabar Spinach once, it is OK, but hasn't been a priority to grow again. Also amaranth, but like orach also just didn't really get into it.

Cape gooseberries (Physalis peruviana) were a tasty non-native garden weed back home, I'm trying to grow them here but in 2 years still haven't had them out early enough to get ripe fruit.

I guess there's the unusual varieties of usual things like tomatoes (~10 varieties), chillies (20+ varieties this year, just daft, need to scale it back), pumpkins for an honourable mention. But they're just unusual usuals. Purple potatoes too... :) (We also have sweet potato seedlings that never went out and I'm wondering if I can overwinter the plants indoors.)

Show threadYvanAug 18, 2025
@geoffl Kat and I did a wander down the allotments yesterday and one thing we noticed is how "normal" most people's growing is compared to ours... yeah, they have tomatoes, but they're all round red tomatoes... etc.
Show threadgroff 🇺🇦

@yvan We grew red orach in the past but as there are enough goosefoot type weeds like good king henry about that we haven't planted it recently. I used GKH in yesterday's thai curry. We normally grow achocha but missed it this year and always grow varieties of the commom veg that are very different to what's in the shops. The white, yellow, red, and black carrots are doing well in big pots.

Cucumbers are the OH's domain and she likes Dragon Egg, Crystal Lemon, White Wonder and Marketmore.

Aug 18, 2025 at 2:40pmWeb
Show threadYvanAug 19, 2025

@geoffl oh, very nice black/purple carrots there - I have never had much luck with carrots other than yellow/white ones and the usual orange sort, I need to try some different seeds - what seeds have you used for those?

I totally forgot we have some "fat baby" achocha growing... first time for us... but I think we were too late, they're still very small plants.

Show threadgroff 🇺🇦Aug 19, 2025

@[email protected] I'll check which type/brand they all were and let you know. I do remember that several companies supplying the Black Nebula seeds used exactly the same picture. I assumed they all ultimately came from the same supplier so got the cheaper ones.

Our soil is clay/flint so they were planted in a deep 50cm wide plastic pot, filled with cheap multipurpose compost, topped with a fine, sandy compost mix. Kept a sheet of glass on top and watered frequently until established.