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Name the vegetables!
david fyfe2
Posts: 17
OK so dummies guide to gardening here. I'm not the most experienced gardener and I've planted some vegetables in my raised bed but I can't remember what they are. Can someone please help me out.
I'm pretty sure they are variety of kales but I was so confident I planted broccoli there. Idiot huh ????
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Thank you for reply. I was sure image one is Kale. Image two I thought was Kale also due to the root of it but I've never grown broccoli or Cabbage before so not sure. Reason I ask I wanted to eat some Kale but was worried it was broccoli and wasn't sure if can eat broccoli leaves!
I'd go with kale, broccoli and cabbage, although the first one could be another variety of broccoli - some of them have more 'crinkly' leaves than others.
Yes. you can eat broccoli leaves - they'll do you no harm - but removing the leaves will weaken the plant and it needs all its strength to produce lots of lovely spears of sprouting broccoli in the spring. By the time the plants are ready to harvest next year you'll be able to tell what they are.
Your broccoli plants will look like this when they are ready to harvest
and curly kale plants will look like this
The kale should be ready to harvest some time after Christmas - then the sprouting broccoli will follow after that.
I build a frame of fine meshed netting over and around mine to keep the cabbage white butterflies and pigeons off - otherwise they'll eat them all.
Last edited: 25 June 2016 08:17:21
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've just looked at your photos again. I plant my kale and broccoli plants at least 50cm apart in all directions. They grow into huge plants. They need firming in well. I stake mine with tomato canes to prevent them being buffetted by the wind - they don't like that.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Great thanks for the advice. I'm a tad short of space with my two raised beds sp perhaps I'm not growing the list suitable vegetables considering they take up alot of space. I will thin the broccoli out to give them more room and cane the hem like you said.
Am I too late to plant anything else where I can harvest this year?
Oriental vegetables like Pak choi and the various types of mustard leaves are best sown after mid-summer as they tend not to bolt so easily.
I've just sown beetroot for harvesting small, and Swiss chard Lucullus, which will be ready to harvest this autumn and should last over the winter to give pickings in mild spells and some more in the spring.
Kelvedon Wonder peas can be sown now for a crop in September.
And of course, Little gem lettuce sown now will give you a crop in Aug/Sept.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.