Brassicas - Not Pretty But Productive

 

It's that time of year when the gardener gets respite from the frantic summer months.  Nothing is growing anymore - weeds included.  But beside uniformly earthy former potato patch and the skeletonised pumpkin patch there are green patches still.  This is when the brassicas come into their own!  Late cabbages, Brussel sprouts, kale and sprouting broccoli are approaching their prime.  The purple sprouting broccoli will not start producing until next March, but has plenty of leaf already.

The other green area is more of a remnant offering leaf beat, beetroot and leeks.

(Under the net is more kale and some Chinese cabbage.  Despite the net the leaves have been pockmarked by some pest).  So end of season is here but there are still harvests to look forward to.

Overdone Brassica

Of course everything is going hell for leather right now what with spring proper arriving and all that.  Rather than try to list everything here is a representative picture of the sort of madness that is abroad.  This is my third sowing of brassicas (the earlier ones being cabbage, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts).  They have all come good with the exeption of the two Tuscan Kales.  Either they are slower to germinate or the seed (which is years old) has finally lost its viability. 

I find it amusing that blogging drops when there is more going on in the garden.  Paradoxically there is more to report on too.  Busy makes busy. 

Rocket Gardens - A Plug

Well lots of them really. The picture shows an unpacked delivery of plug plants received by the School on Tuesday from Rocket Gardens based in Cornwall. Today they were planted out into the garden beds by the children under the supervision of the Garden Team.  Every space freed up after summer harvesting has been filled with  Lettuce( 4 varieties) Corn Salad (Lamb's Lettuce), Winter Purslane,  Spring Onions, Cabbages (2 varieties), Kale (3), Pak Choi, Mizuna, Broccoli, Turnip, Mustard and Perpetual Spinach.  Custody is now down to us - and the vagaries of a Scottish winter!
I was impressed with the previous May delivery too.  It included courgette plants.  Despite the change in latitude they took off after being planted out and produced fruit before the summer holiday (end of June in Scotland). Despite a dose of powdery mildew they are still producing large fruit now! The School obtained the plants for free as an award under the RHS Gardening for Schools Scheme, but I have to say that the plant quality and service has been most impressive.  It would be invaluable for anyone stealing a march or playing catch up after falling behind on their sowing schedule.

School Garden Produce

A Time of Plenty

It's raining all day today.  I retreated from the plot after an early morning harvesting expedition.

From the top there's Leaf Beet, Beetroot, Carrots, Horseradish, Cauliflower, Cabbage, French Beans (Purple), Broccoli, Runner beans, Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry.

It is a time of plenty!

Time to Face The Music

Clearing the decks for spring I have to record that the cut and come again trays in the greenhouse and on the kitchen windowsill failed to deliver.  They stalled at the microgreen size and proceeded no further.  Whether it was cold, lack of nutrition or lack of sunlight is academic.  The yield did not justify the effort

Another failure has been my attempt to overwinter broad beans at the plot.  I thought my fleece tent would shelter them.

Maybe it did help,  but some agency has still uprooted any plants that survived into the new year:

Move on please - Nothing to see here

A combination of frost action and mice I would guess.  On the plus side my Malwina strawberries delivered to late for planting out look quite happy in their temporary greenhouse residence

Also getting greenhouse space are these violas

Holding on for spring is this bedraggled parsley plant

On the plus side too is the clamped carrots

Despite my best efforts we are only three quarters of the way through the crop.  BTW  I have added carrot cake to my limited baking repertoire.

One more admission.  The pigeons discovered the purple sprouting broccoli was get attable through the net, and get at this one they did. 

Skeletalised PSB

Fortunately one robust plant is taller than all the others and so they couldn't get at the shorter ones.  Talk about taking one for the team!