This month you will enjoy growing chard and fennel. As well as this, you will also receive beautiful – and edible – violas!
This month the veg plot is really flourishing – but there is still time to get sowings made to keep the garden productive throughout the summer months. Here’s where your free seeds come in!
Both productive and attractive, these crops tick multiple boxes and all make wonderful additions to the veg grower’s repertoire.
Follow our simple step-by-step guides and you will be enjoying trugs full of delicious pickings in no time!
Viola‘Comedy Mixed’
These beautiful and happy-looking little flowers make a cheerful addition to any garden. What’s more, they are wonderfully popular with helpful garden pollinators, as well as being edible blooms perfect for use decorating baking, or scattered on salads for a pop of colour and flavour, so are one not to miss!
Sow 0.5cm deep, in a tray of good-quality compost. Water well and place on a warm kitchen windowsill. A temperature of 15-20°C is ideal. Keep moist, and seedlings will usually appear in 14-28 days.. Transplant to trays, placing the seedlings 5cm apart, when they are large enough to handle. Always hold by a leaf, never by the stem, as leaves can grow back, but if the stem breaks, the plant will need to be composted. Gradually accustom young plants to outside conditions (known as hardening off), before planting out into well-drained soil, May-July. Plant 15cm apart to allow space to grow on. Alternatively, you can sow thinly outdoors, directly into a seed bed, 0.5cm deep. Ensure soil is finely-prepared, well-drained, and has been watered. Thin seedlings to 5cm apart, before planting out to flowering position, spacing plants 15cm apart.
Chard‘White Silver 2’
This brilliant source of vitamin C is incredibly versatile – you can use the baby leaves in salads, or cook the stems like celery. This veg loves a well-drained soil and can reappear after dying back in winter to produce another crop.
Sow outdoors
After watering and finely-preparing the spot where you would like your chard to crop, sow the seeds thinly, 2.5cm deep, allowing 40cm between your rows. After the seedlings have appeared – which is usually within 14 to 21 days – thin them out to 15cm apart. This allows the remaining plants the space to grow on to
