I’ve been a bit quiet recently, mainly because I have been totally neglecting my veggies over the winter! I’m not a very good winter grower – spring and summer are much more appealing. Still, I have been able to grab handfuls of salad leaves whenever I want them. If you haven’t yet discovered the joy of growing winter salads, then I highly recommend planting a few next autumn. They are so easy – mustard leaves, wild rocket, lettuces, landcress (which I LOVE) and mizuna – no fuss, I just planted the plugs in September and left them to it. This winter, in Cornwall, has not been terribly cold, and they’ve grown so well.
More excitingly, though, is the first harvest of purple sprouting broccoli. Planted up in September, and netted against pigeons, the plants have already reached 2 foot tall and the first sprouts have appeared this week. I think they are early, again because of the warm winter we’ve had down here. I’m delighted to see them, and as soon as this wind dies down I will go and harvest some – what a refreshing change to harvest some broccoli from the garden. Apart from the salad leaves, I’ve had plenty of kale and spinach, but sometimes it is nice to add something different to a meal. I wonder how early the broccoli has come out in other parts of the country?
I still have a few parsnips to harvest, and one more celeriac (tiny – it was growing at the back and didn’t swell very much!) as well as a handful of leeks. But the veg plot is emptying rapidly (and filling up with weeds, sadly – I have much work to do ahead of spring!) and soon it will be time to get the potatoes in the ground and start all over again!