It is not too late to plant out Brassicas which include cauliflower, kale, cabbage and broccoli.
However, you need to get them planted ASAP as the growing window is closing quickly. We already have nearly all of ours planted having started back in March.
We are just starting to harvest the first broccoli and cabbage from those March plantings.
When harvesting if you are careful in removing just the edible head you will be left with the majority of the plant intact.
Leave the plant and it will grow back a number of smaller but very tasty new heads. We often have three or four harvests from our broccoli and cabbage.
With the main stem and all the root system left intact the plant puts a lot of energy into providing multiple harvests.
Each time you harvest they get a bit thinner and smaller.
We practice no dig gardening at Tullamore Farm for nearly all of our vegetables.
When the season is over and the yields have dropped we never pull the brassicas out, we just cut them off at ground level.
They can get quite large and need a little effort to cut at ground level. There are several benefits in doing this.
Firstly, you leave the roots to rot in the soil. There are a lot of valuable nutrients stored in the roots of most plants. They may try to grow back again, just cut them off near ground level again. Without the green leaves to photosynthesize they will die off and help replenish your soil.
Secondly, when you pull something out of the garden you disturb the soil exposing lots of valuable microbes and organisms to the sunlight.
Even more importantly you are advising that bank of seeds in the soil (think weeds) that things have changed and there may be an opportunity to grow.
Now, who wants a healthy crop of weeds coming through?
