I have recently started reflecting on where plants in our garden are originally from, because people often ask me the same question about myself. Most of our flowers, fruits, veggies and herbs in the garden are from other countries. I have started writing a series of blog posts to explore some of our favourite flowers and edibles we have grown over the years which are from overseas. In my previous blog post, I covered our favourite edibles in the garden which come from Europe. Because there are so many, I decided to divide them into two posts. This post focuses on our favourite brassicas we grow in our garden that are native to Europe. They are cabbage (green and red), cauliflower, broccoli and kale. Since Wombok cabbage (Chinese cabbage) originates from Asia, I will cover that later on when I write about our favourite edibles which are native to that region, of which there are many. If you enjoy gardening, it’s not a bad idea to consider growing the brassicas I mentioned above because they have become rather pricey in New Zealand over the past couple of years, even when they are in season, which for us is during the winter months. Brassicas fare best when grown during the cooler months, so I usually plant them in autumn and winter. If planting brassicas in early autumn, you may need to protect them from the white butterfly. If you want to avoid using a pesticide such as derris dust (which is also available in an organic form), you could always drape fine netting or old net curtains over the plants to protect the white butterfly from laying eggs on the plants which turn into caterpillars who then munch on them rather merrily and can do a lot of damage. I recommend using tunnel hoops to drape the netting fabric over so it doesn’t come into contact with the plants and damage them, similar to the way I cover my strawberries with bird netting. Brassicas are not difficult to grow but can take a long time to mature as growth slows down considerably as it gets cooler. However, there are mini varieties that you can grow which are more compact and mature much more quickly. Another advantage is that because the plants are so compact, they can be planted quite close together. Regular varieties can get quite large and need a wider berth when spacing seedlings. I have grown the mini green cabbages “Ranfurly Mini” and “Space Saver”, the red cabbages “Red Express” and “Ruby Red”, the cauliflower “Majestic Mini” and the broccoli varieties “Mini Italian” and “Mighty Mini”. I highly recommend all of these varieties and have had great success with them. If you are living on your own or with just one other person, or have a large family but other people don’t like eating brassicas, growing mini varieties might be a good idea as it can take a long time to get through a large cabbage or cauliflower. After awhile, they start to lose their freshness. Mini varieties are sometimes small enough to be cooked and consumed in one meal. If you wish to plant brassicas when it has gotten very cold, you can always protect tender seedlings from frosts by covering each plant with a cloche. Cut the bottom off a 2 litre milk bottle and place it over each plant. This also helps keep slugs and snails away from young plants. I don’t recommend relying on this though as they can crawl through the hole at the top, so it’s a good idea to use additional protection to deter them from munching on seedlings. One little tip for growing broccoli is to leave the plant in the ground when you have harvested the main head. After awhile, side shoots will start to form. You can cut these little broccoli florets off the plant. Keep an eye on your plants regularly, as they will continue to form until the plant eventually runs to seed as it gets warmer towards the end of spring or beginning of summer. Kale is a bit different to the other brassicas I have mentioned as it doesn’t form a head and have to harvested at once. You can pick the leaves as you need them. We like using fresh kale leaves in green smoothies. But there are so many other ways kale can be consumed and it is well worth growing in the garden. Towards spring when the plants have fully matured and the leaves are really large, we pick them for making kale chips marinated with olive oil and baked in the oven.
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