Sow Now, Harvest in Autumn: June's Hidden Second Season
While everyone is focused on the summer bed, experienced gardeners are already planting the second wave. What goes into the soil in June will feed you long after the tomatoes are gone.
The most common beginner mistake in June is: stopping to sow. Yet this is precisely when the most important phase for everything you harvest in autumn and winter begins. Plan well now and you will be harvesting until first frost — sometimes well beyond.
Four plants that need to go in now
Savoy cabbage is the most reliable winter classic for June sowing. Direct in the bed or pre-grown on a windowsill, transplant in July — harvest from October into winter. Handles frost and tastes even sweeter after the first cold snap.
Im Lexikon: Wirsing
Parsnip is the most underrated root in the bed. Sow now, patience until late autumn — but a harvest you can store until March. Important: never let it dry out in the first three weeks or it won’t germinate.
Savoy tip: plan for a few more plants than you think you need — it tastes equally good fresh and pickled.
Im Lexikon: Pastinake
Late carrots (sown until mid-July) round out winter stores perfectly. Pick a late storage variety like Berlikum or Flakkee — they keep in sand storage until February. Direct sow, 1 to 1.5 cm deep, rows 25 cm apart, and don’t skip marking with radishes: carrot seed is slow, radishes are done in 4 weeks and have loosened the soil.
Im Lexikon: Karotte
Field salad (Mache) as the gap filler. As soon as something gets harvested somewhere in the bed, mache goes in. You can sow until early September, but the earlier the stronger the rosettes. It will give you fresh greens deep into winter, even under snow. In a raised bed, you’d be amazed how much fits.
Im Lexikon: Feldsalat
Ready-made concept: the Winter Vegetable template bed
If you don’t want to plan from scratch, just use the template from the bed planner — proven winter vegetables, optimally combined, with exactly matched plant spacings. Your autumn/winter bed is ready in two minutes.
Im Lexikon: Wintergemüse-Musterbeet
The most important point at the end: write the harvest date into your garden journal the moment you sow. Otherwise, summer stress takes over and the parsnip stays in the ground until it’s woody. Rootivo automatically reminds you when, according to the lexicon, the plant should be ready — you don’t have to remember a thing.