DON'T be put off by summer heat.
Get some vegetables in for autumn and winter eating.
The days are hotter, but the light is gradually changing.
We haven't yet noticed the shrinking daylight hours, but most of our plants have - especially onions planted last winter.
That's why they are now bulbing rapidly as they mature.
Keep in mind that in two months, autumn starts, although it still remains warm for another few weeks after.
From now we can indulge in non-stop sowing and planting for at least four months in cool districts and longer in the sub-tropics.
The vegetables that go in now include the most nutritious of all food to be ready as we need them, right through winter.
There is still time to sow summer-loving crops, such as bush beans.
In really warm, moist soil, seeds will germinate in days and the plants grow with enormous speed.
Just over a week ago I sowed another summer crop of gourmet delight - beautiful, heavy-cropping bright-green pods - and some golden butter bush beans.
They popped up in days and are already throwing out leaves like butterfly wings.
We'll start eating or freezing the pods in just over a month and if we keep picking, the plants will continue cropping until the first frost.
I sow bean seeds 100mm apart in double rows so they become self-supporting as they grow.
In many frost-free districts there is still time to sow an extra crop of sweetcorn too.
Best of all are varieties such as snogold that are carrying huge, super-sweet cobs 80-90 days after the seed has germinated.
However the most important vegetables to get in during January are the roots.
The seed can either fail, or germinate erratically, if the soil is allowed to become even briefly dry in the days immediately after sowing.
This is why it pays to mix carrot and parsnip seed with pulverised coco-peat and sand before sowing.
It not only spaces out the seeds so they don't become too overcrowded, but the peat absorbs moisture, holding it around the seeds until germination.
Young seedling carrots survive by quickly sending down long roots, away from the surface.
If you have a deep, clay-free, sandy loam, grow the very large, but tender majestic red carrots.
By early winter the bright orange roots are almost one third of a metre long and can weigh up to a kilogram each.
Then they stop growing and remain in the soil for the rest of winter. Brilliant value.
With shallow soil with a clay base, sow seeds of shorter stump-rooted carrots such as Manchester table or the even shorter chantenay varieties, especially the superb, chantenay red-cored. This week I've also been sowing those magnificently-flavoured, yellow-fleshed lubyana carrots because they look and taste like butter when steamed.
The good news is the speed by which carrot seed germinates at this hot time of the year. That's why I always deeply soak the carrot and parsnip beds a couple of days before sowing.
The moisture should go deep down into the sub-soil. This creates a reservoir that steadily soaks upwards to where the seed is lying.
I'm even dedicated enough to hand water several times a day if necessary to ensure the surface soil remains continuously moist.
That means germination is about five days.
Parsnips take twice as long and if you are silly enough to use an old, half-used packet you'll be waiting forever.
Parsnip seed must always be fresh, otherwise it is a waste of time sowing it.
Other winter vegetables to go in now as sturdy seedlings include cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower.
And it is a perfect time to put in a row of silverbeet, the perfect cut-and-come-again leaf vegetable.
