Winter Greens

After a long winter of horticultural hibernation, spring finds we gardeners amidst a period of frenetic hyperactivity. Awakened from our slumbers by warming soil, sunshine and rising temperatures, we make the proverbial headless fowl look positively lethargic. And while both the season and the activity it brings are very welcome and filled with promise, it is all too easy at this time to concentrate on the short term. The salads and the early veg are the main attraction, and rightly so. And it can be difficult to think ahead to the dark days of another winter.

But think ahead we must, if we want fresh greens from next January to March and beyond, before another new season’s crops are ready. These hardy brassicas need a long growing season, and the months of May and June are the time to sow most of them.

My list of winter brassicas includes winter cauliflower, sprouting broccoli, Savoy cabbage, kale, later varieties of sprouts, and spring cabbage. Spring cabbage should be sown during July and early August, but all the others need to be started in late spring or early summer.

The traditionalists among us will sow all of these in a carefully prepared and sheltered outdoor seedbed, then lift and transplant them to their permanent positions in the fullness of time. I am a traditionalist in many respects, but this is not one of them. I prefer to raise my brassica plants in modules, in the polytunnel. They can get off to a good start under polythene, later being moved to a frame, and finally outside to harden off in a sheltered spot. The problems of pests and diseases are greatly reduced if modules are used, and there is no root disturbance at time of planting out.

I prefer to sow the seeds in a small pot, then prick the sturdiest out into cell trays when the first pair of true leaves have formed. Alternatively, you can sow three or four seeds per module, then thin them out to leave the strongest.

The earlier sowings will be ready to plant out in June, but usually the ground is still occupied with earlier crops at that time. So if this is likely to be the case, delay sowing until May, or if necessary, transplant into larger cells or pots and grow on. Try to avoid any check in growth by the plants becoming pot-bound.

The best place for these winter greens is following on from the early potatoes. The ground will have been well manured for the tatties, but the manure won’t be too fresh. Brassicas dislike freshly manured ground. In most areas, following the early potatoes means planting out in July. The ground will need very little preparation following the lifting of the potatoes, but do tramp it down well. Brassicas like a very firm bed.

Growing on in larger cells or pots and planting out at this later time reduces the risk of damage by the cabbage root fly, which is more active earlier in the summer.

Though root fly may still attack the module plants, I find this is rare, and certainly much rarer than attacks on seedbed-grown plants.

The cabbage white butterfly, though, makes no such distinction, and will lay eggs willy-nilly on the module-grown plants. The caterpillars are an all too familiar sight, and will munch leaves to extinction. Covering with fleece certainly helps, but the best control is the regular thumb and forefinger squashing patrol.

For many of us, larger pests are also a problem.

 Pigeons can strip leaves and leave a whole plot of skeletal leaf-ribs in the space of one night – or more accurately one dawn, but I don’t really do dawn. Those of you who are up before the lark can undertake pigeon-scaring patrols. If you’re like me, you need to erect a net over your brassicas. A simple temporary structure is all that’s required. Bamboo canes, willow stems or hazel poles, with upturned jam jars or plastic bottles on top, and the net stretched over them, works a treat.

A more serious problem is rabbits, and those of you who have bunnies to battle with have my sympathy and understanding. Last spring, for the first time, they moved in to my garden. And they moved in so quickly, an enormous amount of damage was done before I had time to create even temporary protection. Quite simply, there is no solution other than secure rabbit-proof fencing. Yes, it is costly, time consuming and unsightly. But nothing else works. And if you haven’t been through this trauma, believe me there is nothing more likely to drive you to drink than the total obliteration of your vegetable plot in the space of twenty-four hours. So you can guess what my winter project has been. And rabbits always start with the brassicas. The one thing I cannot fault them on is taste.

Apart from the necessary physical protection, caterpillar patrols, and periodic weeding, all these greens are undemanding, and once planted out they can be left pretty much to their own devices.

As winter approaches, the sprouts, kale and perhaps the sprouting broccoli need to be staked, even in moderately exposed gardens. These tend to be top-heavy, and are prone to damage by wind-rock. In exposed areas, try to select shorter, or dwarf, varieties. I mainly grow dwarf varieties, but I still stake them. Mind you, here on the north coast, I have had Swedes blown right out of the ground, so my conditions are a little on the side of extreme.

So now it’s time to get back to my list, and be a bit more specific.

Winter Cauliflower
This is a slight misnomer, and spring cauliflower would perhaps be a more accurate epithet. The earliest will mature in late February in the south. Different varieties mature at different times, and a selection of perhaps three varieties will keep you in caulis from late February to early June. Try Snow March for maturing from late February, Aalsmeer or Celebrity for producing in April and May, and wind up with Evita, which should stand into June.

Broccoli
Most vegetables taste better and are better for you when cooked and eaten immediately after picking. That, after all, is the reason most of us grow our own. This is particularly the case with sprouting broccoli, and anyone who has compared broccoli from the garden with broccoli from the supermarket will surely agree. You won’t go far wrong with Purple Sprouting Early and Purple Sprouting Late, the former cropping in March and the latter in April. For a change of colour, try White Sprouting, which is ready in late March.

Savoy Cabbage
The crisp and curly Savoy is quite unlike the other heading cabbages. Steamed, then tossed in butter and freshly ground black pepper, it is well worth the discomfort of the wind, rain and sleet you have to endure when harvesting it in deepest winter. I grow January King every year, but Ormskirk and Vertus are worth trying. They should be ready in December, but they stand well and should remain available until late February or early March. You just can’t beat a buttered, peppered Savoy with your mince and tatties on a wild, wicked, wintry January night. Comfort food, without parallel.

Curly Kale
Much maligned, and at times described as cattle fodder, this is one of my favourite vegetables. It stands through the most severe winter weather. Pick the lower leaves as needed, from autumn right through until spring. A spring dressing of a high-nitrogen fertiliser will provide a fresh spurt of tender young growth. Kale is high it Vitamins A and C, and very valuable at a time of year when fresh greens are scarce. Steam it gently to retain its texture, or use it in stir-fries. It adds colour, texture and flavour to soups, and you must try some shredded kale through a winter salad. Darkibor is especially hardy, and Dwarf Green Curled is the old stalwart. Try Starbor if your garden is particularly exposed. It is a dwarf, compact variety less prone to damage from winter gales.

Sprouts
If you are a Radio Two listener, you will know that Sir Terry puts his Christmas dinner sprouts on by the end of October. This is the sort of bad press sprouts have to live with. Sprouts are not to everyone’s taste, and those of us of a certain generation have had to work hard to overcome school-dinner memories of a dollop of yellow-green sludge masquerading as sprouts. But when freshly picked after they’ve had a touch of frost, and not over-cooked to a school-dinners consistency, I reckon they are worth a place on any dinner plate. Of all these brassicas, sprouts are most prone to wind damage, and need staking in all but the most sheltered areas. It is worth noting that with F1 hybrid varieties, the whole stem of sprouts matures at the same time, while non-F1’s mature progressively from the base up. So grow F1’s if you want to fill the freezer, and non-F1’s if you want to keep picking a fresh meal. Grow the dwarf variety Peer Gynt in exposed places. Though some seed catalogues suggest its cropping period is from October to December, I find it usually stands well into February. Montgomery crops reliably into February, and Wellington holds well through  to March.

Spring Cabbage
As I mentioned way back, spring cabbages are the exception, in that they should be sown in July or early August. They still merit a mention here, though, because they fill an important winter gap, and can be cut before Christmas as loose-leaf greens, or left until spring to heart. Many varieties can also be sown earlier in the season, to produce “spring” greens in autumn. The later varieties, left to heart, will still be cropping in May. Pixie is one of the earliest to mature, while Myatt’s Offenham is perhaps the latest. Wintergreen is also worth a try.

I’m really sorry to remind you of another winter, when you’ve just got rid of one, and we should all be looking forward to the balmy, salady, G&T days of summer.  But the harsh horticultural reality requires us to plan ahead. And with a little forward planning, there need never be a winter week without some fresh greens from your garden. Trust me – when the time comes, you will appreciate the efforts you have made right now.

© Mike Clark 2007

Published in Organic Gardening May 2008