Overview

• Garden beds should be cleared of weeds, loosened and kept consistently moist to support late-season sowings.
• Sowing or transplanting must finish by month’s end to give winter crops enough warmth and daylight for development.
• Candidates for late planting include kale, cabbages, leeks, chard, kohlrabi and hardy root vegetables such as carrots and beets.
• Slow-maturing crops sown late benefit from a four-week start in a cold frame or greenhouse before being set out with intact root balls.
• To guard against frost, gardeners should apply lightweight fleece over greens and a 10–20 cm straw mulch for root crops before storing harvests in cool, dark cellars or earth mounds.