Garden: Spring Work in the Potager

Golden Acre in 2014

There is something very special about planting out the first cabbages of the year. Because we really like cabbages? Well, no, although we do. Nope, cabbages are usually the first veggies to get planted out in the spring. They were sown in February and although they are but tiddlers at the moment, I know they will do much better in the ground, especially now the weather has warmed up.

I sow into little coir plugs; I do have misgivings about these, or rather their carbon footprint, but peat is an absolute no-no for me. Coir, made from coconut husk could be sustainable but with peat growing at a snail's pace of 1mm or so a year it could never keep up with demand and then bang goes (another)  unique habitat. Seed compost always seems to contain peat, around here at any rate and my own compost is glorious for adding to the beds as a mulch, but is too weedy for sowing anything but the most robust seeds into. The little plugs come dry and have to be rehydrated but give the small plants enough of a head start before they face the horrors of the slug infested clay.



We are growing two varieties of summer cabbage this year - Golden Acres a nice classically round pale green affair that has done well for us over the last two years, slow to bolt and resisting the flea beetle attacks, and Greyhound an interestingly pointy variety and a new one for us this season. One of the Golden Acres failed to thrive so I've planted out 11 of those and a dozen Greyhounds.

Half a dozen red pak choi also went out, in hope rather than anything else. The seed is old, and although they all germinated, some are not thriving. This will be the third year of (not) growing pak choi and we are yet to harvest a single plant as they seem very susceptible to both flea beetle and aphids. I'm hoping that planting this early might give us a quick crop before those villains get going.

Brassicas this year are going in the bed that held climbing and drying beans and peas, plus other things that liked climbing such as cucumbers.

2014 Climbing beans and a living nasturtium mulch!

As I cleared the beans last year I sowed the green manure phacelia in their place and this carried on growing through the winter. In late February I cut it all down, left it on the surface and covered the the whole lot with a sheet of ugly black plastic. Pulling the plastic back this week there is nothing to be seen but a few stems and a lovely light friable soil. Alright, a lot of lumps of clay with some more friable bits. But the worms have been busy, and thus the moles too. So despite being a no-dig garden (ha ha) I did fork out the mole runs before planting. If nothing else, it avoids the embarrassment of me disappearing down a hole up to my elbow!

Planting out is quick - use trowel to make a hole, drop plant and plug in and use hands to pack some earth back around.  It is important to make sure the plugs are under a layer of earth or they can dry out and then the plants suffer.  Water well and in a few days once the mole has finished rearranging the subterranean part of the bed the plants will all get a positive firming in.  Another chance for the amazing disappearing gardener's arm.

They won't all survive or heart up which is probably a good thing else we'll be eating cabbage every week until mid-September!  But they have at least avoided the slugs and snails and got through their first night alone.