Broccoli Tales

Geez time has been flying by.  Been busy and busier.  But, today the subject is Broccoli.

Good stuff.

I started the broccoli we are eating now (and have been eating for a few months) at the beginning of August.  Broccoli for me!   Sadly, I did not succeed well with my succession planting plans.  I ran out of garden space ... and the back garden redo took longer than expected.  But, in the mean time - a review of the broccoli.

I started with:

- Broccoflower Italian

- Pieracicaba non-heading Broccoli

- Broccoli, Spigariello

- Purple Sprouting Broccoli

- Broccoli Rapini

When the Pacman broccoli cell packs become available from the nursery - I planted some of those also!  

My absolute favorite thus far?  Happy Rich (F1) mini broccoli from Johnny's Seeds.  Germination was great, growth was fast, and we were eating mini broccoli spears long before the other broccoli was heading up.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli.  A very pretty, big plant.  Not heading up yet.


New leaves have this faint touch of lavender to the underside of the leaf.

Did I mention very big?

I can't wait to see how it looks when it starts heading.

This is Broccoli Spigariello which looks (to me at least) identical to Pieracicaba non-heading Broccoli.  We use the leaves in salads.  Very tasty.

Broccoflower Italian.  I got these seeds from Elizabeth @ GW.   This has been such a strange fall/winter.  Hotter and drier than usual.  I don't know if this is suppose to be a big head or not.

Rapini Broccoli.

I love the contrast of the blue/grey plants against a green background. 

The rapini broccoli is more of a jade green and slightly bigger plant.  Next fall I think I will plant the rapini in the center section and line the entire path with Happy Rich mini broccoli's.  The mini broccoli does well with cut and come again.  They quickly branch and grow new mini heads.

And the newest ....  finally.   Baby Happy Rich mini broccoli's sprouting under squirrel proof covers in the newest back garden  bed.

This is the original back bed after the remake.

I have a few tomatoes planted to see if they will do anything early spring.  I'm not expecting much, not quite enough sun.

So the bed is filled with many types of brassica's and root veggies.

Fingers crossed!  So far, not too bad.  Need to work on better ways to keep moisture in the top bits of the bed.

And the built in garden stools along the edge of the garden? 

Swoon. 

I'm ready to convert all the garden plots!

The weather has been beautifully warm and dry - if you are doing work outside.  So I have been outside a lot.  Just loving it.  And remiss in updating the garden journal.