Purple Sprouting Broccoli

First year ever growing Purple Sprouting Broccoli and definitely not my last!! So great to be able to go out and pick some veg at this time of year. I did get one shock with it which I will describe later.

There isn't a big large head like calabrese (normal broccoli) to you and me - there is a smallish floret at the top and the rest is spears that grow along the sides. 

I have managed 4 picks so far from my bed of about 8 plants. It has been largely ignored during the winter and is in good condition considering. There is another month of a couple of picks a week from the plants to go. Great at this time of year!! 

My first pick!

The purple sprouting broccoli doesn't take as long as calabrese to cook - just took a couple of minutes in boiling water. I cooked it with some parsnips that I had still in the garden ( which had been cooking already).
Discovered then, purple sprouting broccoli looses its purple colour when cooking - the water absorbs it all, and so did my parsnips slightly! Was totally shocked - had people over for dinner and was promising them lovely purple broccoli, but it just looked like normal calabrese! Tasted slightly sweeter, but then again, picking to cooking time was only about 10mins!


Those of you that are fans of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - he has a couple of recipes for purple sprouting broccoli at the link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/01/purple-sprouting-broccoli-recipes

More details on the growing of Purple Sprouting Broccoli on the GIY website:
http://www.giyireland.com/articles/detail/growing_purple_sprouting_broccoli

Definitely one for the plot if you have space!!

Fab weather

The weather in Ireland over the past few days has just been fabulous!! Plants have been thriving in the extra warmth - gone from frost by night the week before to temps in the mid to high 20's C.

The potatoes in the purple bed are so healthy looking - doing great so far. Really hopeful of a good crop from these if they stay this healthy!

   

 The Calebrese ( broccoli to you and me)  has started showing its first signs of the flowers forming ( which of course is actually the part we eat). I will have to monitor these closely over the next few weeks as it can go very quickly from ready to pick to flowering and too far gone. 

I will have a large amount ready at the same time, but planning on blanching and freezing them for a supply through the next few months. Just pick - into boiling water for 2-3mins, cool, dry and then onto a freezer tray for a few hours and then bag them up and most importantly label them with date picked. You can just put them into a bag to freeze after blanching, but they will all freeze together and make it very hard to use them.

Spring onions (in groups) planted out. There were about 8 seeds put into each plug tray and now planted out between 2 wide rows of garlic into the red bed.

 

 

Finally got started with getting some of the bark down. Over 20 bags later, time was called and off to enjoy the sunshine. Plenty of days in the week to be putting down bark - but it might just have been our summer!

Jobs to do this week:

Hoeing - bit behind on this - though did spend over an hour hoeing and rocking picking at my peas last weekend.

More scallion and herb seeds to sow

Get my purple sprouting broccoli started for next spring

Also saved some cyclamen seeds from the plants through last winter and going to try sowing them now for autumn - don't know if the seeds will be viable or not - only one way to find out I reckon :-) If anyone has any tips - feel free to let me know!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclamen

Rock picking - so many rocks/stones in the soil here. Using all that I collect as mini paths/edges around my raised beds. Buckets and buckets have been picked so far. 

Ok - as I look at that list, I better go out and get started and leave the updating :-)))

Glorious sunshine

 What fabulous weather we are having now this week in Ireland. Yesterday was just a joy to be out in the garden. I love this time where first harvests are starting to take place and you can see the rest of the plants starting to grow - makes all the time bringing them on worthwhile!

Planted out my bush tomatoes into the bed with the strawberries and salad leaves - will be interesting to see how it does with the irish summer. I have 2 other bush tomato plants kept in the greenhouse to see how they do in comparison.

Some plums on the tree - first harvest - tree was planted last year. Very exciting!! I love plums straight from the tree - I grew up with one in an orchard behind my house and spent many a summer covered in hives from eating as much as I could (before the birds and bees got to them!).

Blossoms on the apple trees as well - I can see the buds on the cooking apple trees, so hopefully these will follow shortly.

The spuds (potatoes) in the raised bed are doing so much better than the spuds in the pot, but that would be expected. The ones in the ground have finally shown their heads above soil and look good so far - these will have to be monitored closely for blight as those planted later are at a higher risk according to all my research.

My tomatoes in the greenhouse - there is a bush tomato plant in the pot over the roses tin. Rest are growing nicely and started to produce flowers now so time to get feeding. It is recommended to start feeding (every second watering) once the flower buds have set.

Salad leaves - picked a few of these shortly after the photo was taken for part of my salad last night. So fresh and tangy!

Loads of yummy strawberries growing - only 2 didn't like the move from previous place to the raised bed, but they weren't the strongest plants either.

My brassica bed is just magnificent at the moment. Everything looking so healthy - brocoli on the right and brussels sprouts and cauliflower from the left.

Parsnips are growing well - those planted almost a month later have caught up with the early planted ones - definitely not worth planting out too early  - one lesson learned.

The first radishes were picked yesterday - Jolly variety. These were added to the salad last night - lovely fresh crunch and peppery taste from them.

Beetroot growing well.

Planted the carrots from the toilet roll holders out into the garden yesterday. I did find some small stones when digging them in, so there would have been a risk of them forking if I had planted them direct.

The carrots below are the ones sown out - the ones in the closest row were planted about the same time as the ones in the toilet rolls and look healthier. The proof will be in the harvesting/eating as they say!

Pink Bed

This bed is my daughters favourite and only because of the colour - this is her bed! Ah, to be two again and thing that everything pink is good.

This bed has my brassica family of plants. This include, Brussels sprouts, calebrese, cauliflower, pok choi and a small portion of lettuce squeezed in a spare portion.

This is a tight squeeze into this bed. The Brussels sprouts are on the right hand side of the bed. Next in is the cauliflower, and then the main plant on the left hand side is the calebrese ( broccoli) - plus some lettuces seeds and some bolted pok choi.

This is borrowed straight from the GIY ireland website - tip of the day 11th May 2012
http://www.giyireland.com/tips

Bolting Pak Choi

Pak choi is a member of the brassica family and although its a little hard to grow (the main problem generally is that it is very inclined to bolt), its worth the effort since the entire plant can be eaten - flowering shoots, leaves and stems.

A key requirement is to place the plants in a sheltered site with soil that is not prone to drying out. PC has shallow roots and will dry out if you dont keep the soil moist. Dig in plenty of well rotted manure or compost before sowing. Sow seed directly in the ground in early summer - sowing earlier than this (in cool weather) is the main reason why Pak Choi bolts. Always keep well watered.

This is exactly what has happened to me.  I got young plants back in March and grew them under a cloche for about a month. They have totally bolted ( but at least still edible). I have removed and used about half of them so far - hence the space for the lettuce. But next stir-fry, their days are numbered.

This was the only raised bed I had to add some feed to. A lot of the lower leaves were starting to turn purple which from my internet searches led me to believe a nitrogen deficiency. I used some store bought nitrogen this year, but next year I plan to use some nettles juice( Nettles left soaking for about a month in a bucket of water - note, try to use one with a lid as the stuff stinks from past memory!).

Return to you about garden finally - been busy!!

Ok - been away from this far too long - but trust me, I never left the garden. Will update tomorrow with a load of photos from different stages. We got "distracted" by landscaping our garden, putting in a path, getting groundwork done for patio, moving loads of soil around, rock picking and still more rock picking.
The bed order changed slightly from my initial plans.
Bed 1 - garlics, onions, scallions, leeks

Bed 2 - bok choi, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, calebrese (brocolli)

Bed 3 - carrots, parsnips, beetroot, radishes

Bed 4 - potatoes

Bed 5 - took this out of rotation - just growing strawberries, lettuce - plan to also put in some bush tomatoes too as a trial.

Also, directly in the soil - peas, potatoes, onions, leeks

Growing horseradish in a pot. Never seen it grown before! Interesting times - not sure as yet when to harvest and will be on the lookout for recipes.

My apple, plum trees and berry bushes planted last year are also showing flowers so we are hopefully looking at a first crop this year,

Rhubarb isn't looking so healthy - who would have known slugs love rhubarb.

Also have tomatoes growing indoors in preparation for my greenhouse ( aldi/lidl special), some chillies (cheated with them, bought them from B&Q as a small plant), basil, corriander (first batch nearly ready to eat!!).

Okay- decided to upload one of the finished photos - will have to wait till tomorrow for the rest of the stages. Hopefully I plan to upload sections on different vegetables/herbs and other plants with tips/tricks I come across. I will also upload some recipes of interest that link in with the food I am growing. Always tastes so much fresher when its homegrown.

The path (new) leads down to the multi coloured beds - there will also be a patio down there shortly(as soon as roadstone get around to delivering it!). This way we will be able sit down of an evening and if you get the munchies, you can just pick from the beds directly,