Too cold, wet and windy to get out in the garden today…but did get to admire the broccoli which are doing exceptionally well! Not that you can see them in this photo thanks to the enourmous broccoli at the front, but I’ve got silverbeet, cabbage and chinese cabbage growing in this raised bed too!
Three key things have helped with the growth of these vegies: fertilising, pest control and soil.
FERTILISING
The growth has been phenomenal in this bed since I started using a bit of Yates Nature’s Way Seaweed Booster mixed in with my comfrey tea to fertilise the plants every three or four weeks. I keep talking about this product, but it really is brilliant stuff!
PEST CONTROL
I’ve made sure I’ve done my best to keep the pests at bay by:
scattering egg shells around all the brassicas to keep slugs and snails at bay
putting out beer stations for slugs and snails who are attracted to the yeast (they will crawl in and drown)
using Yates Blitzem to keep on top of slugs and snails
sprinkling Derris Dust on the leaves to keep white butterflies away
SOIL
Last year I grew my root crops in this raised bed and they did pretty well here. I added plenty of organic matter to this bed prior to planting out the brassicas and I also grew mustard over the winter in this bed too. I turned the mustard into the soil late in winter when I was preparing the soil for planting.
A few more days and we should be harvesting the broccoli head on the right hand side. I mentioned in a post a few days ago that this is the last of my Yates Broccoli – Shogun Winter Harvest. And quite frankly, this is the biggest and healthiest plant that I’ve had to date from this variety. So I’m pretty delighted with the results!
Fingers crossed for a little moment in my day tomorrow so I can get out and relax in the garden to de-stress from my hectic working day!
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