Winter Abundance

By Helmut Glenk

We often regard winter as the quiet time for our garden and the crops that we grow. This need not be so in fact during the cooler parts of the year I probably have just as a greater variety of crops to harvest and enjoy as in the summer. A stroll through my veggie garden(s) shows kale, red cabbage, cauliflower, savoy cabbage, brocolli, beetroots, spinach, leeks, celery, bok choy, endive and lettuce all doing well and some already being harvested. Herbs also like the cooler weather my garlic is up, parsley (both flat and curly), spring oinions, coriander, thyme, sage and rosemary all help to enhance flavours. And of course the ever reliable lemon tree is laden with fruit. (see photos above).

We eat a lot of brassica based plants and I grow these as organically as much as I can - no pesticides or dust. To avoid the scourge of the white butterfly I plant out my seedlings in mid April when the temperatures are cooler and the white butterfly is less prevalent. Sometimes, if the white butterfly is still about, depending on conditions I might put a fine netting over the seedlings for protection until the cold nights arrive. Brassicas are heavy feeders and need good well manured soil with compost and liquid plant food as they grow.