In April Mrs. Spud and I always dismantle the previous year’s brassica cage and move it to its new location, ready to protect a new season’s brassicas from pigeons. Most of the brassicas from the previous year will already have been used, but there may well be some spring cabbage, sprouting broccoli and a few overwintering caulis struggling on. These will need a net thrown over them.
As we move into spring in Year 3 of our rotation, there will be three beds growing the Broad Bean family. This is ok, because most of our brassicas will be growing through the autumn and winter, and won’t need the space until August. We will be growing a few brassicas for summer harvest though, namely calabrese, and a few summer cabbages and cauliflowers.
Brassicas generally prefer a firm soil, and in the past I have followed traditional advice and tramped all over the beds before planting out. But that means that I have to dig the beds over before the next crop. (Did I mention that I hate digging?!) So in future I will be relying on the fact that the soil will have naturally firmed up as it wasn’t dug after the legumes. In addition I will plant the brassicas out as deeply as possible and, from a board, tread down just the few inches of soil around the actual plants. When it is time to lift the stalks, a garden fork underneath the roots should decompact that little bit of soil.
However, as we are not planting out our late brassicas until late summer, we do need somewhere for these plants to grow and thrive until we are ready to put them out. John Seymore calls this area his Holding Bed and uses a completely separate piece of land. But he lived on a farm and had land to spare. On my allotment I don’t. So I will incorporate my holding bed into the brassica break.
The Holding Bed is where plants that have been started off elsewhere, in either seedtrays, modules indoors, or a seedbed outdoors, can be planted out about 6” apart once they outgrow their nursery. This should provide enough room for them to grow and thrive through their childhood and teens until their final newly decorated semi is ready for them to move into as young adults.
Fortunately, brassicas don’t seem to mind transplanting, in fact they seem to thrive on it. Bob Flowerdew recommends lifting plants, to break the taproot, and putting them back where they were, even if not transplanting. It might be worth trying. And when transplanting, we need to put the plants in as deeply as possible, up to the first healthy leaves if possible. Brassicas can get very top heavy, and the deeper they are planted, the less likely they are to topple over.
The brassicas will benefit from the nitrogen released by the legume roots, but as I am cropping intensively I think it is time to give the soil another boost. I plan to mulch the autumn and winter brassicas with my chicken compost soon after planting. The mulch should keep any weeds down and gradually release nutrients to the growing plants through the winter.
After harvest, I don’t bother trying to compost large, tough brassica stalks. It is possible if mashed to smithereens with a mallet first, but I don’t bother. Instead I throw them to the hens for a few days, until they have picked their fill, then I put them in the “to-burn” pile.
Finally I have to be flexible about which brassicas go where in this break. Notwithstanding the plan outlined below, I do need to get some of the autumn, winter & spring crops into the ground before others. The urgency for planting out the late brassica crops is, in order:
brussel sprouts – cauliflower – cabbages – sprouting broccoli – kale.
If, for example, the field beans are ready for harvesting earlier than expected, but the calabrese has been a bit sluggish (!) then the crops that follow can be swapped around to suit the situation.
Bed 1: Calabrese followed by Autumn & Winter Cabbages As soon as they are big enough and soil conditions suitable, it is time to plant out Calabrese, which was sown under cover in early March. (I have read that calabrese doesn’t like transplanting, but I have not had any problems. And by growing them very early like this, I avoid finding hide-and-seek caterpillars nestling in the branches when they reach the table.)
As I am planting out early, it might help to cover the bed with fleece for the first few weeks, to hurry them along. I haven't tried, but it's an idea. Harvesting should start in June. After the first harvest, providing I grow the right variety, I can leave the plants in the soil and a welcome second crop of smaller spears should develop in a few weeks.
By mid-August however, they need to come up and Autumn and Winter cabbages planted out from the holding bed.
Bed 2: Kale By August the field beans will be blackening and drying and can be harvested. If not totally dry yet, I will spread them out on my conservatory window sill for a couple of weeks, or at least until Mrs. Spud notices and gives me an earful. I will keep a few back for next year’s seed.
The last of the brassicas to be transplanted will be Kale, at about the end of August. It is late, but the plants will have been growing happily in their holding bed, and will continue to grow impressively through the autumn.
I like to grow more than one variety. In addition to the normal British green curly kale, I grow the beautiful black Italian cavolo di nero. However, the latter is less hardy. Although the green kale survived last year’s severe winter, the Italian unfortunately didn’t.
By winter kale comes into its own, and the tender inner leaves will be very welcome steamed, stir-fried or braised. They will probably start sending up seed stalks in April, which can at a pinch be used like an inferior broccoli, but then it is time to dig them up.
Bed 3: Sprouting Broccoli & Spring greens The spring-sown broad beans will have been producing through July and into August. As soon as they are past their best they should cut off at their roots and Sprouting Broccoli planted out. These plants can afford to be a bit late, as they do not start producing florets until next spring. There will be a few broad bean plants left at one end of the row to set seed for next year. When they are dry and ready, some turnips can be sown in their stead for overwintering to provide Spring Greens early next year.
This year I lost my entire crop of broccoli because of the severe winter conditions, so I am considering looking for more hardy varieties for next year. It is always worth growing two varieties anyway: one early, one late, to extend the cropping season.
After the first florets are harvested, each plant will provide smaller, secondary shoots. And when these are harvested there will be yet more, even smaller. It is a process of diminishing returns which can continue until the land is needed for the next crop.
Bed 4 Brussel Sprouts & Turnips The overwintering broad beans will have been harvested by mid-July when the plants need cutting off at soil level. Here we can plant out the Brussel Sprouts, which will have been growing contentedly in their holding bed since late spring.
Again there will be a few broad bean plants left to set seed. Once these have been cleared we can sow a couple of rows of Turnips, which should produce decent sized balls by the end of the year. I don’t need many turnips, so this should be sufficient.
Bed 5: Early Cabbage & Cauliflower, (interplanted with lettuce) with the Holding Bed followed by late Cauliflower, Swede, Kohl Rabi and Spring Cabbage: This bed is a bit of a potpourri!
In one half of the bed I will grow a few each of Summer Cabbages and Cauliflowers. As there is so much else to eat in the summer, just a few plants should be sufficient, say 6 caulis and 8 cabbages. These will need starting off as soon as possible inside in the warmth. January is best. After hardening off, they can be planted out, 3(caulis) or 4 (cabbages) to a transverse row.
The overwintering Lettuces from Bed 2 can be interplanted with the caulis. They can be put out in a grid, with gaps for the caulis, giving them 9”in each direction. By the time the caulis start needing more space, the lettuces will have been eaten.
The other half of this bed will constitute the Holding Bed. Once the fully grown brassicas have moved to their final destinations in August and the holding bed no longer required, I would like to plant out some Swedes here and maybe, if feeling adventurous, Kohl Rabi. These will have been started off elsewhere in modules in mid-June. Then in September/October I will plant out some Spring Cabbages, which will have been started off in August in the seedbed. Planted out 6” apart, every other plant can be harvested in early spring and used as spring greens. The remainder can grow on to maturity 12” apart and harvested in May/June.
Once the summer brassicas have vacated their half of bed, Winter & Spring Cauliflowers can be planted out. I would like some for harvesting in December-January, and some that will be ready in about April. (I understand that these are really a kind of heading broccoli.)
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