Fast Growing Sprouts

Its just amazing how quickly brussel sprouts grow. One seed was planted per section, all of them germinated and they have grown to this size in just 6 days.

Plant in summer for harvest in winter

Its time to start worrying about planting for winter. Apparently the best things to plant now are brassica and beet. So in went some.

In an effort to keep the cats off of the seedlings up went the polytunnel. Its only a small one but it now protects beet and carrot seeds. With some luck the added heat will also help germination and growth.

Yesterday in went some brussel sprout seeds into seed trays and into the green room. Also in went some winter leeks. Then there's the strawberry experiment with the tiny red strawberry seeds from my parent's place.

Putting the Brassica to Bed

Time to transplant from the seed trays into the garden. 10 Brussel Sprout plants (3 rows) and 6 purple cauliflower (2 rows) went into the freshly dug over beds. The beds were not composted because after spending a day digging them over the energy to sift compost through a seive was missing. From that seed tray none (that' right, none) of the green cauliflower germinated, all the brussel sprouts germinated and all except one (or was it two) of the purple cauli germinated.

To my total surprise another pumpkin germinated. After however many weeks it has been they were about to get written off as a disaster. There are now 2 pumpkin and 1 giant pumpkin desperately awaiting transplanting into the vege patch.

Garden-Bound

Waiting to go into the garden was 2 white corn, 1 zucchini, and 1 pumpkin (seeds saved from a supermarket pumpkin). They now each have their own little part of the vege patch. With some luck the cold weather is over and they'll survive.

Spent some time trying to weed, but until the plants get large enough its hard to tell a carrot from grass. Still, did some, and will do more once it becomes obvious what's what. After the weeding came a feeding (of fertiliser).

Another pumpkin has germinated! Tons of brussel sprouts have germinated, as have a small number of cauliflower. More time is needed before they can go into the vege-patch but all looks good at the moment.

Brassica

Filled the last seed tray with brassica:
15 brussel sprouts
10 purple cauliflower
15 green cauliflower
all seeds are from last year. the sprouts from Watkins and the others from Kaiotes.

started to dig over the last part of the patch. there are 4 living cauliflower plants so they have been left in place.