This is a blog post on growing and harvesting cabbage at home. Cabbage is a common staple diet here in the UK. A lot of British recipes have got cabbage as an ingredient. There are many varieties of cabbage to grow and also different color ones. When I first started growing my own food it was never my intention to grow everyday staples. simply because I have limited space in my garden so I tend to grow the ones that I can’t find easily in the shops or supermarkets. Now that I have grown some cabbage I do find that the homegrown ones are much tastier and fresh compare to the shop-bought ones.
Their many types of cabbage some are Summer/ Autumn harvest, whereas the Savoy cabbage is winter harvest. The winter ones are grown almost the same time as the summer ones just that they are much more hardy and can last longer into the growing season.
Growing and harvesting Cabbage
In order to grow cabbage is to grow from seed or buy young seedlings in garden centers. Here is a link of where to buy cabbage seeds from. Sow the seeds under cover from March to April. If conditions permitting (warm soil) is possible to sow outdoors in late May. Plant out when the risk of frost is over. Grow the young seedlings apart at least 40 cm apart as they do grow quite big. i grew Red Rookie and Duncan F1 variety, it grew very big. If there is not enough space it wouldn’t grow. Grow in a sunny spot in well-drained soil. Also, don’t grow cabbage again in the same spot. This is to prevent cabbage diseases. Sow and plant cabbage at the right season will help to prevent diseases as well.
Slugs and snails love cabbages so do protect them as much as you can. The matured cabbages that I grew don’t look like what you see on the seed packet. It will take time for the cabbage to mature into bulbs for harvesting. The cabbage head will form. It is ready to harvest when it becomes hard to feel and it’s bulky. Don’t be surprised it will be smaller than the ones in supermarkets.
Thank you for reading and dropping by. do have a look at my other blog posts of grow your own like Water spinach and courgette.
