Broccoli 'Baby Matsuri' i landet sommaren 2019.

It's finally summer! Almost all my spots are completely filled up with vegetables in all stages of development by now. Some new sowings, others were just planted outside. It's absolutely lovely!

I'm all about prolonging the growing season as much as possible, which is why I keep on sowing seeds throughout summer. This time of the year is basically as busy as springtime. After all, I need to fill the spots I just harvested from! Many vegetables do just fine in fall too. The pointed cabbage variety Early Jersey Wakefield (pictured above) needs three to four months to grow. So, I sow it now so I can harvest plenty of fresh cabbage when the days start to get shorter again.

Most of the vegetables I sow in spring can be grown later in summer too. It's just a question of what my family wants to eat, which vegetables can stay in the beds for a longer time and what we can store until later.

This is what I sow in June:

Pre-sowing indoors and plant outside later:
Lettuce
Scallions
Broccoli
Black kale
Kale
Purple kale
Fava beans
Green beans
Summer flowers
Parsley
Squash
Turnip cabbage
Soybeans
Corn

Outside:
Welsh onion
Snow peas
Sugar snap peas
Summer carrots
Dill
Parsley
Summer flowers

Other vegetables I can sow now:
Wax beans
Chard
Beets
Cucumber
Basil
Turnip
New Zealand spinach
Welsh onion
Purslane

Remember that...

Vegetables and flowers that we pre-sow in summer grow quickly. I must make sure to time my sowings and transplanting so that the new seedlings don't have to wait too long in their little troughs. Some of these vegetables can go basically anywhere in my garden. For example parsley and lettuce. Others belong to a certain area and then I need to plan ahead to find empty spaces in my beds.

I don't sow anything indoors during this time of the year. Simply because I know how weak and leggy the seedlings can get. It's better to put them outside where there's plenty of sunlight, wind and changing temperatures. This helps the seedlings grow hardy. I keep my sowings in shade or half-shade.

I haven't started preparing for the winter sowings in my polytunnel or outside beds yet. I'm going to do this in July/August. What will you sow in June?
/Sara Bäckmo