autumn planting well summer never came!

Im a newbie. I am about to put my bed together, here in England it is the end of july. I have battled with the most slugs and snails I have ever seen in my life Plus more rain than ever
Now I am turning to sq ft gardening. However I don't understand about successional sowings. (I do know that when a crop comes out you plant another) but I am baffled as to what to plant when. Since summer hasn't come apart from the odd day; I don't know what to do now. Is there anything I could plant now or should I wait until spring??
Thank you for reading this.

There is always something to plant I think you should be able to do lettuces, cabbages, beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach. You could also look into starting garlic too! I hope you have better luck with your weather!

Really I can plant all that I thought it was way too late.
Thanks for the info

I still am planting them, these are all cool weather crops and can take the cold a bit! It makes a lot of them sweeter because the cold helps convert the starches to sugars like carrots and parsnips!

Ok, I get that. So what should I plant when. I'm thinking were coming into autumn then winter will be fast on its heels. Will anything grow when its winter? Is fleece enough to pull the crops through a bad winter. Over here Summer is more like the rainy season and winters are a lot colder we had thick snow last year. Like i've not seen since I was a little girl

I would get everything in ASAP to give you the most time! Garlic is planted in the fall and comes back in the spring.

Frenchbean

In Southeast England I would think the hours of sunlight will be more of a problem than temps. Get any fall crops in ASAP to take advantage of the long days you are having now. You want everything as close to grown as possible when you get to the 10 hr daylight days. Then fleece on cold nights until you finally get that killing cold. A clear plastic hoop house could extend your season as well. I was able to overwinter leafy greens (collards, kale, swiss chard), garlic, lettuce and carrots even though we got to temps as low as 18*F a few times. (actually had an unusually mild winter) The plants slowed "growing" when the days got short and then picked up again as the days started getting longer.

I expect a fellow Brit could offer some advice. Talk to your locals. Just because we do intensive growing in small beds using a special MM does not mean the row gardener doesn't have good general climate advice. I watched the fields near my house and pulled potatos when the farmer did. I was able to plant earlier not because of weather, but because my beds were workable. The farmer couldn't get his equipment into the wet fields.

Kay

Frenchbean, welcome to the forum.

Look up Plantoid. He's from your side of the pond. Very creative, too.

Succession Planting: this is the process done to keep you in a crop for a period of time. Like plant lettuce seeds every two weeks through the season. It really depends on the crop. Sometimes the seeds tell you, other times you figure it out from experience.

Hope that helps!

Ava

Hi! I'm so far north that the only thing I plant in the autumn is garlic. That behaves like tulips or daffs and likes to put out roots in the autumn, ready to spring into action the next year.

My sister lives near Derby and the email I had from her last week said she had just planted out sweetcorn, kale, purple sprouting broccoli and celeriac - all as small plants. If you are able to get to a garden centre then you could see what they have on offer.

I believe that some people sow broadbeans in the autumn too in the UK? And I expect some fast growing lettuce or radish might be possible if you get decent weather... surely you are due some decent weather? If it doesn't grow then you have only lost a few seeds and a bit of time, the rest of the seed packet will keep fine 'til next year.

Thank you all for your advise. The sun is shinning here 23c Thank god. It all changes on Wednesday so the weatherman says.