Skip to main content
What to sow in the cold winter months
Gardening with MAT COWARD
[Liz West/Creative Commons]

LOOKING through next year’s seed catalogues can be frustrating, as well as inspiring. There’s a long, dull winter to get through before most of the varieties listed can be sown or planted. 

So I’ll start with a vegetable suitable for sowing at any time. Suttons Seeds (www.suttons.co.uk; tel 0844 326-2200) offers a sweetcorn called Bodacious which is grown for its seed shoots. 

Sown indoors in complete darkness, the resulting bright yellow shoots are said to taste something like beansprouts as well as corn on the cob, but with an extra sweet-and-sour flavour.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Kew Gardens
Gardening / 7 August 2026
7 August 2026

MAT COWARD says the heatwave is a testing time for gardeners — but he has some tips

bumblebees
Heatwave / 17 July 2026
17 July 2026

Rising temperatures and human activity are making life far harder for these vital pollinators. ALEX DITTRICH explains

Savoy Italian cabbage. Photo: Goldlocki/CC
Gardening / 2 January 2026
2 January 2026

MAT COWARD takes a look at some of the options for keen gardeners as we enter 2026

(L to R) Flowering parsnip in its second year; Oven baked parsnip with honey and mustard / Pics (L to R): Pic: Skogkatten/CC Takeaway/CC
Gardening / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

Commiserations if you failed this year, MAT COWARD offers six points which, if followed religiously, will ensure you succeed next year