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$ GHOLFDF\ LQ ODWH ZLQWHU Purple sprouting broccoli is a vigorous plant which, as with many brassicas, can make new leaves and shoots at relatively low temperatures. As long as plants have had enough time to grow to a good size, and have survived any extreme frosts and grazing by pigeons, they can use their established roots and leaves to make delicious new shoots of broccoli in any mild winter weather. Timing of broccoli growth depends on variety.
This ‘Early Purple Sprouting’ is already making broccoli in November. These heads withstood frosts of -6°C (21°F).
with sufficient organic matter and good drainage. I have found that this is best achieved by surface composting without any digging or cultivation – see Chapter 3, pages 32-8, for advice on soil.
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offer tasty harvests in winter, when cold weather helps to sweeten their flavour. • Kale is probably the easiest green leaf to grow for winter harvest and is one of the hardiest. There is a good choice of varieties with a range of colours and leaf shapes, and there are also flat-leaved kales, which taste sweet in salad. • Purple sprouting broccoli is mostly for early spring, but some varieties, such as ‘Rudolph’, can make new shoots in milder midwinter weather.
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Four varieties of kale in January – ‘Sutherland’, ‘Red Russian’, ‘Redbor F1’ and ‘Pentland Brig’.
• Cabbage can cover a long season according to the variety you grow – do make sure you buy seed or plants of varieties that heart up (more or less) at the time you hope to be eating them – for instance, ‘January King’ (although this one may mature any time between November and February). Savoy cabbages are the hardiest of all, and late varieties of savoy will heart up from February to early April at a time when greens are extremely precious.