I think that’s how you have to do it. I’ll plan on row covers next year.
Your onion starts are beautiful!! Mine were super wimpy by comparison. What type of onions?
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@Eme Thank you. I can’t really take too much credit on the onion starts as I bought them from Gurney’s this year. They are Candy hybrid, an intermediate day-length variety good for areas across the central part of the U.S. that don’t get either exceptionally long or short days in early summer when they begin to bulb up. They are supposed to be a long-keeping variety which is important to me.
The starts were very thin and spindly when I got them, but had fairly decent roots. I always think they won’t grow because of how they look, but most do grow pretty well. I planted a bunch of them in early-mid April, which is a little later than I normally plant onions. But we have had a lot of rain and cooler weather with a few warm days thrown in here and there. I think they like that moist cool weather and they have grown quite sturdy. I did throw some 10-10-10 in the little trench I dug to plant them and watered the trench well and popped the little things in.
I went to throw the cardboard box away that the onion starts came in about a week later and saw I had left a whole rubber-banded bunch in there exposed to the air and open with no packing around the roots. The roots looked pretty dry, but I decided to just stick them in my strawberry bed spaced close to each other for green onions, hoping they might survive. Surprisingly enough, they did survive and have caught up to the first ones planted so they are pretty tough.
Sandra
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I’m hoping to make some saurkraut this year, and kimchi. I made some ponytail kimchi out of volunteer radish last year. Yum!
I live cabbage all the ways you said and im interested to hear if that coleslaw turns out for you. Not a fan of coleslaw usually.
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I have 4 good sized waltham 29 brocollis, 4 dinosaur kale and 2 store bought collards left. Its well past brassica season here, but kale and collards can sometimes go the distance (collards are super bitter all summer though 
). I just pulled up my last row of cherry belle and hailstone radishes.
Had a terrible brassica year, 4 small cabbage heads, broccoli that instantly bolted, and the brussel sprout got swarmed with aphids just as they were starting to sprout. The correct timing has alluded me so far.
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Good harvest on the broccoli so far. It was a miserable year for germinating brassicas from seed so we got a bunch from the plant store.
The early cabbages that didn’t get munched by an escaping cow are starting to head up. Hope they are ready soon. Always nice to have fresh cabbage around.
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My broccoli have started heading, but they’re growing in my community garden plot and someone (or possibly a rabbit) has been helping themselves to the leaves so I don’t expect much from them. The plants never had enough leaf area to produce a good-sized head. My lax weeding didn’t help I’m sure, but my cabbage beside them are doing much better.
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Broccolini for dinner a few nights ago. I meant to have multiple of these (annual favorite) and just 2 experimental brussel sprouts growing, but had seeding mishaps and ended up with only 1 and way too many brussels. Hopefully it keeps producing throughout the year as they tend to. For the brussel sprouts, I have to keep cutting lower leaves. Didn’t realize how massive those get, and I plant close. Really hoping they are worth the space it in the end.
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Harvested all the remaining cabbage today to clear the beds for summer crops. Think we did ok this year, all things considered.
Some plants did better than others, as you can see, haha.
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the last of the sad bolted bok Choi. these were the ones just about to bolt.
still getting kale, none of cabbages made heads this year, all brassicas bolted so we’ve been eating florets for weeks
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Finally got my insect covers on my broccoli and cabbage raised beds. Usually, I see those dreaded white cabbage butterflies much earlier in the year, but the last few weeks have been quite rainy and cool here. I saw the first butterfly on Monday of this week, so I got the fabric coverings on.
I am hoping the onions that I planted around the edges of the broccoli and cabbage beds aren’t adversely affected by the fabric covering. I am sure it must block a little sun, but the Cole crops don’t seem to mind that.
I try to re-use the cover fabric for a few years and use clothespins to cobble two big pieces together if I don’t have a big enough piece left from last year to cover the row. I then clothespin the fabric to the edges of the metal beds to keep it in place and keep out butterflies and other insects. Works really well.
I should have made my stakes a bit shorter on those beds and I wouldn’t have needed so much fabric, but at the time, I did not have the fence, and was also using bird netting on the beds to cover my pink-eye purple hull peas from the deer, which love them. The peas needed taller covers than the Cole crops.
I like to follow my Cole crops with southern peas. After I harvest my cabbage and broccoli around early July, I just throw the pea seeds out and water them in. They love the heat and grow like crazy with plenty of time to harvest before first frost. I assume they also fix a little nitrogen into the soil which those hungry Cole crops have used up. I love to get two crops a growing season out of one bed!
My broccoli is starting to make heads, so looking forward to harvesting the big heads and hoping for lots of good-sized side shoots.
Sandra
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Very well done. Nice to have everything safely inside.
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@zendog Thanks! I hate doing that particular job, but it really doesn’t take that long, and I am glad not to stress about little worms eating my Cole crops. Now all that’s left to do is wait to harvest and water a little if things get too dry. If I am feeling lazy, I just water right through the top of the cloth, but it is also easy to just remove a clothespin on the metal bed and stick the hose through.
Sandra
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Broccoli and friends. The heads were small, since many of the leaves had been eaten about a month ago, but I always feel like getting any broccoli is a win.
Friends include the last few Chandler strawberries, Ponca blackberries, and Hannah’s Choice, Cara’s Choice, BlueRay, Elizabeth and Herbert blueberries,
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How do you grow your broccolini? Do you have a specific variety you like? I’ve tried it twice and it just started bolting very early and making very skinny little clusters. Do I need to plant it earlier or later to get it to size up before it tries to make buds?
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I saw a good idea online that we tried this year, attaching pipe clamps to the inside of the bed and making hoops out of 1/2" PVC pipe. Seems like it worked pretty well. A lot less trouble with cabbage moths this year.
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Finished off the last of the broccoli this week, roasted with balsamic glaze. All those beds are going to summer squash so I can lose those plants to different pests again.
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Unfortunately, I don’t know specifically what kind of broccolini it is as I got the seeds off Etsy maybe 3 years ago with no specifics other than “organic broccolini seeds” and it looks like the seller no longer exists. I start them around 2/1-15 and plant them out as soon as I can, I think it was around 3/23 this year. They actually make broccolinis all summer from all over the plant, but I have to be really quick about harvesting them as they grow once it gets warm as they will quickly turn into flowers. I picked a few more off yesterday because of this.
Your broccoli heads are beautiful! I just pulled 2/4 purple broccolis I planted too small too late and are just big with no heads. Debating keeping the other two for next spring.
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@OldKYHomestead I just got some new 18” tall 4 ft diameter aluminum beds and filled them with a topsoil/compost mix. Your method sounds like it might work well for those round beds. I planted some collard and kohlrabi seed in them, which will probably need protection from the cabbage moths, although I am not sure if they attack kohlrabi or not. This is my first time trying it.
I am sure I will need to replace the wooden furring strips that I used for the cabbage and broccoli beds to support the row cover fabric, as the furring strips will probably rot in a few years. We just happened to have them left over from a project, so decided to use them as a frame for the fabric. Thanks for the helpful idea of pipe clamps and PVC.
Sandra
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Here is the video if you want to see how he did it:
He has wood beds like we do, but I’m sure you can make it work. One note, I think 6 feet is short for the length. I would cut them at 6.5 or 7 feet next time.
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@OldKYHomestead Good video. Very helpful. I am pretty sure the rebar stakes and 3/4” pvc will work perfectly. Thanks!
Sandra
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