My Tiny PlotGorgeous Seakale
I wanted to show you how gorgeous my Seakale is at the moment. As a rule I generally don’t let things flower in the vegetable garden unless I’m planning to collect seed from them. And this would have applied to my Seakale too but it ran to seed so fast and the flowers just popped open overnight in the recent heat wave that I literally couldn’t stop it.
I’m glad that I didn’t because the display of flowers is just lovely. They are bold, extremely white and look like, I think, tiny fried eggs. They’re quirky and at the moment brighten up the gloomiest part of the garden.
The downside is that because the plant ran to see so quickly I didn’t get chance to harvest the forced Seakale under the pot. Now that I know its foibles next year I’ll keep a sharper eye on it!
Actually most people have seakale not as a vegetable, but because its enormous flowering value. I tried it years ago in my borders and then it didn’t flower, so I’m quite jealous of you now.
Having said this, I’d like to challenge you on your flowering policy. I understand this may be caused because your plot is too little for your ambitions and you want to eat all the food you grow. But then again it is so nice to see all the stages of plants. We let nearly all or vegetables go to flower – at least one or two of the crop. The surprise of visitors when they see that e.g. salads are actually flowering (they never thought about how they’d propagate otherwise) is priceless.
Oh, that is lovely. Think I’ll get some next year for my flower beds.
I agree and would love to let more of my vegetables flower. But as you say if I did that the productivity of the garden would plummet. I particularly love flowering Lettuce as they achieve great heights which is unexpected from such a small vegetable.
Very nice and well worth letting some things flower.
Have you let asparagus go to seed, its a fantastic plant for a mixed border.
Mine has done the exact same this year! These were the plants I over wintered as well. Never mind. I’ll have to try again!
Your seakale looks great – we can’t grow it and we don’t know why. Maybe snails?
Hello,
We’re growing seakale for the first time this year and it’s nothing like yours! In fact it’s still only about 4 inches high.. Hopefully it’ll get a move on soon!
The flowers are stunning, I didn’t realise seakale was so decorative.
I was just reading a recipe on the guardian using seakale and thinking I must grow some . Now i’ve seen these flowers it is definitely on my wish list.