Brassicas in the kitchen garden

A lot going on here, July 2022

I took a photo of these kohl rabi a month ago, and two months ago when they were planted out.  We've started to eat them!  The biggest ones are bigger than a tennis ball, and even the smallest ones are bulbing up (slowly).  They are purple on the outside and white on the inside and taste like a swede or mild turnip.  Where I've pulled up ones to harvest I've transplanted the last winter Savoy cabbage seedlings I've been growing on in a tray.

Cabbages:  hope they heart up, July 2022

 The cabbages in the bed next to them are all huge and show some small differences in growth pattern (a few are tall and upright, a few are short and wide, most are somewhere between);  a fellow allotmenter gave me the seeds he'd saved so I hope they are only crossed with cabbages, not other types of brassica.  I want them to form big fat heads!  We'll eat them regardless, but probably not till autumn at least.

Protection, July 2022

As mentioned in a previous post, I lost most of my swede seedlings to a pesky pigeon, so I replanted the rows with corn (which was also a replacement crop, the first being lost too);  these were initially covered in insect mesh, but when the corn grew tall enough I took it off and put a different cover over it:  a table with a wire cover and bird netting draped around two sides.  The other two sides have strategic sticks blocking a flight path in, and all of it combined seems to have detered the pigeon, as the remaining swedes have flourished underneath: pictured right at the center of the row.  The corn looks good too, as does the lettuce (hard to see in the photo) I interplanted it with.  

Lastly (not shown), I planted out the Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli somewhat close together in the rows where the fennel and carrot seeds underperformed;  they are both growing on for the present, to be transplanted out at the allotment late in the summer.  One is covered with bird netting, the other with the insect mesh--to keep the pigeon off them while they grow bigger.  I need them to be big and strong to withstand the slugs at the allotment!

Everything looks pretty good in the kitchen garden;  I'm really pleased with how it's turned out this year.  I'll have to discuss my somewhat underwhelming allotment in the next post.