Kale

TLC your tomatoes

 Time to clean up your strawberries patch

Keep weeding and watch for bugs

Kale should be in your garden all the year round  Kale is very easy to grow for for harvest for all the year round, even in the winter. 

Sow winter kale in August. I sow them in pots and then put them in my polly tunnel after my tomatoes come out.

Sow from March onwards, for you summer crop. 

As the seeds are small, I always sow into a seed tray first, then prick out into cell trays or pots ready for planting out.

This will give you an assurance of a good strong plant. 

Plant them  deep into fertile soil and firming in well will give the plants a good anchor. This will helps them from rocking in the wind.

Once mature, kale is one of the hardiest of all the veg. It will tolerate temperatures down to -10º.

One of the main things that I like about Kale is that it is rarely trouble by slugs or caterpillars.

However, like all plants, during the early stages of its life Kale will need some protection with horticultural fleece to get it off to a good start.

Kale grows well in the under cover over winter as well, this will give  a much more tender and sweet crop than that grown outside. 

The kale grown outside in the winter, albeit slowly through the depths, but as soon as the soil starts to warm in spring it will start growing on, filling the hungry gap with delicious, nutrient packed leaves. 

I would suggest a cut-and-come-again picking technique as this will prolong the production of each plant. I just remove the lowest leaves allowing the new growth to grow on.

Try Westland Winter for a solid winter crop. Red Russian for the greenhouse and summer cropping and Dazzling Blue for its colourful beauty.

Kale is versatile in the kitchen - I make smoothers  adding spices like ginger or mint to give it taste. 

JANUARY 9, 2019