Gardening Club: Cabbages and Cauliflowers

August 9, 2013 by Elaine 4 Comments

With the bottom half of the polytunnel looking relatively tidy, greenhouse in situ and the top shelf of the other greenhouse frame (aka staging) now completed, using the metal tubes Mud had fixed and a spare mesh shelf section, I decided that the main wooden staging needed a radical sort out. There were still several trays of salad leaf seedlings, a lot of which were now bolting, sitting on it, making the place look really untidy, as well as the trough of peas and the remaining 5 chilli plants.

I moved the chillis from the deep tray in which they were standing and the trough of peas across onto the newly formed top shelf of the staging by the door, using the weight of the trough to help keep the chilli plants secure.

A bed full of Brassicas (and a few leeks and onions)

With the tray now empty, I started to tip the salad seedlings into it and then took them up to the compost bins before coming back for another lot. The staging looked very bare but was also a bit dirty, so I used one of the child sized sweeping brushes to clear the debris off, placed the two trays of flowers which are still waiting to be planted out, together and then turned my attention to the haphazard piles of propagators and seed trays which filled the lower shelf of the staging.

A short while later, the trays and propagators were neatly stacked in size order, plant pots were back in their individual piles and that side of the polytunnel was looking tidy, if a little barren. I’m seriously considering starting some more Brassicas off for a winter bed at the school but I’ll still need to work out how to cover them to keep them nice and warm. You may have gathered that the idea of growing over the winter has piqued my interest somewhat and I really want to give it a try both at home and at school.

The final polytunnel job other than watering, was to trim the tomato plants and make sure they were fastened securely to their supports. With this done and the trimmings also consigned to the compost bins, I shut the polytunnel up and moved onto checking the beds.

I really like the way the Brassica bed is looking at the moment  but it needed a few weeds removing. I hate taking the netting off as it gives me no end of stress trying to keep the butterflies off. Thankfully there was only one around today and I kept batting it away, checking any leaf it may have tried to settle on.

Weeding Brassicas in the summer, is, I have decided, far too stressful and with the amount of leaf coverage generated by Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Kale and Romanescos, probably isn’t that necessary. With the netting off, I took the opportunity to take some pictures before securing the netting back in place, checking all the while that I hadn’t managed to trap a butterfly in with the plants.

A couple of the Cabbages are close to being ready for picking, as is the kale and there are about half a dozen Cauliflowers forming. In amongst the rows are Leeks and onions and these seem to be holding their own. With the netting secured and after a general check of the other beds, I headed for home and a much needed cup of coffee.