The best veggies to sow between seasons

Quick-to-harvest vegetables are ideal to sow in between seasons, ensuring a continual harvest when the big producers of summer are coming to an end but winter crops are not yet producing.

HOW TO DO IT

• Sow seeds and transplant seedlings under or near older plants two to three weeks before they are harvested. This provides protection and ensures something is already growing by the time the older plants are harvested.
• Sow seeds in seed trays and pots, ready to be transplanted as spaces open up.
• Leave easy-seeders such as spring onion, lettuce and rocket to seed themselves.
• Plant early, mid and late-season varieties of the same crop. This ensures a staggered harvest. 
• Choose varieties suitable for “cut and come again” harvesting. Instead of producing a once-off harvest, these supply a steady harvest over several weeks or even months, with only side shoots or leaves being harvested.
• Include perennials such as strawberries, rhubarb, chives, asparagus, Mediterranean herbs and artichokes. These, combined with annuals, ensure year-round harvests.

ROCKET

Grow classic Swiss chard with thick white stems and dark green crinkled leaves or try varieties with vibrant red, orange, pink and yellow stems. They add wonderful pops of colour to the vegetable garden. Young side leaves will be ready for harvest after 30 days.

Growing: Swiss chard likes full sun, fertile well-drained soil and grows easily from seed. It's a little more prone to bolting in the hot summer months than during winter.

One of the fastest vegetables to grow, they're ready to harvest in just four weeks.

Growing: They are sown easily from seed, and benefit from being buried slightly below the surface — about 1 to 1.5cm deep. This encourages them to grow fatter roots. Thin out so they have space to develop a decent size. Sow seeds every few weeks because they mature so quickly.

LEAFY GREENS

Lettuce, bok choy, mustard, mizuna, tat soi and kale are all fast growers and leaves can be harvested as early as 25 days.

Growing: Easily grown from seed they like moist, fertile and well-drained soil. Do successive sowings more regularly during warmer weather.

• Jane's Delicious Garden. Jane Griffiths. Sunbird Publishers www.janesdeliciousshop.co.za