My Tiny PlotBrassicas planted
The brassicas are all tucked up in their new home. We planted two Broccoli plants, three red cabbage plants and three cauliflower plants. Mtp has a bit of club root problem so we needed to add some lime to each hole and dig it into the soil before we planted them. Then each plant received its own brassica collar to deter cabbage root fly from laying its eggs around the stem and then the whole patch was covered in fine grade mesh to keep the butterflies out. Man, brassicas are hard work! I’m amazed anyone grows them.
But… but… brassicas are fantastic! They’re the best crop of all! And you can grow them all year round. And they’re tasty and good for you.
What’s not to like?!
If you want kids to eat cabbage, stir fry it in hot oil(olive or sunflower with some sesame) until crispy. Lift out onto kitchen roll with implement (our potato masher does the job). Give them a big bowl and chopsticks.
Forgot to say shred it really finely first!
I love brassicas – I love broccoli, and cauliflower and apparently UG loves red Cabbage (which I found out this year – sheesh we’ve only been married 3 years!).
But… they are a bit of a pain. If the club root doesn’t get at them then the cabbage whites will and they all take a very long time to mature, especially Broccoli. This year’s crop took one whole year to crop. That’s a lot of episodes of 24…
I have one word: netting. Fine enough mesh also keeps out the butterflies. It’s the only way forward…
Thanks Soilman – the netting has been deployed.
Congrats on your mention in the Sunday Telegraph today. (Page 11 of the Home & Gardens section in case you haven’t seen it)
Recognition, not only for your blog, but also for your sartorial titfer…Can’t be bad!
Best
GM
Thanks for letting me know Greenmantle – I haven’t seen it! Someone from the Telegraph did get in touch a little over a week ago but said they would call back to arrange an interview. What exactly did the article say?
Drat!… I just spent 20 minutes copy-typing it out for you, then lost it all in the upload, cos I forgot to do the maths question above.
Can I just post or fax it to you instead?
Let me know by e-mail to akeeler@tiscali.co.uk
Best
GM
I hope you dont mind me mentioning the fact that you seem to have very hairy legs in the picture!
I guess it’s all the time in the fresh air at tmp.
Excellent site. Quite inspirational. Keep up the good work.
Hello – for some reason it’s ages since i visited your blog but i keep seeing links etc all over the place. Please can I link to you from my blog to remind me to pop over as I really like your blog. Really interesting & great photos. Made me resolve to try a bit harder !
All the best, Mike
Hey, remember to distinguish your calabrese from your broccoli. Calabrese is what you buy in the shops and is labelled broccoli where as broccoli is usually labelled purple sprouting broccoli in the shops and is of course far tastier*.
Can you remind the UG to hold boxes the correct way up during the photo shoots as some of us cannot read upside down. It took me ages to work out that he wasn’t seeding a lawn on your lottie!
*taken from a survey of 3 old people living in a rural part of Glastonbury with access to Waitrose, 1977, PJM et ux.
Bristol Rob – times are hard at mtp, razors are expensive, what can I say :)
Hi Paul – I haven’t tried growing Calabrese. Apparently it’s very difficult to grow. Do you have any experience of it? I know that it doesn’t take as long to develop as Purple Sprouting – that’s why the farmers grow it as it’s more cost effective.
Experience? Me? Funny thing is I’ve only owned an allotment since last October so this is all my first year. I thought farmers grew calabrese because it was also easier as well as maturing quickly but what do I know. I wasn’t even going to bother but the kids like it (‘trees’ as they call them) so when I saw some young plants I bought 9 to try.
I’ve not used lime or collars and simply have them netted to keep the pigeons off. Most of my broccoli will be early/purple sprouting broc.
Bring on the first year failures!