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| Spring cabbages in cold frame, Oct 2017 |
My classy cold frame (the base is a stripped down old sofa seat and the cover is a glass shower door) is currently filled with some very happy spring cabbages, some small cauliflowers for next summer, and self-sown miners lettuce. It's got a few random calendula too. I moved out half the cabbages in the photo above into the main beds now that all the potatoes are dug up (this year's Potatoes bed will be next year's Peas/Beans/Brassicas), in order to fit the cauliflower seedlings. This past summer we had a couple really nice cauliflowers, grown over winter in the cold frame and planted out in spring; I hope I can do it again this time.
I'm happy about the self-seeded miners lettuce too: something keeps eating my pak choi and iceberg lettuce seedlings in other containers. At least we should have some sort of fresh salad leaves, even if they are tiny! I have a hard time keeping lettuces alive in general, though I had better success this year than previous ones. There's also some self-seeded lambs lettuce in another container, which I'm looking forward to; this self-sowing business is great! Other self-seeders: mizuna and chard. Free food!
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| 18 month old chicory, Oct 2017 |
Speaking of containers, I've also got some chicory plants, sown spring 2016, finally ready to try forcing. The instructions on the seed packet said to sow them in a seed bed in spring, dig them up in autumn to pot up and force over winter--it did not work out like that at all! None of the in-ground sown seeds came up (slugs, I suspect), and I made another sowing directly in a planter, which all had grown about two inches tall by autumn. Needless to say, they did not get forced. But after more than a year, I hope they'll be good for it now; I've never tried it before. If they all successfully grow nice chicons, they should be good for about two meals, sigh.
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