I haven’t blogged much this year. If you are a regular reader, you’ll have realised this, but it is worth stating because I have come up with a plan to get typing again. Or tapping, as I will be writing on the phone app.
Anyway, as the title of this post suggests, the plan is to write 80 posts featuring different aspects of the garden as it is, was and may be. So, first up are the purple sprouting broccoli in the current raised bed.
Over the summer, the two plants had been ravaged by caterpillars, so I’d thought that would have put paid to them. Not so, as you can see in the photo above. They are determined to survive, pushing out new shoots, on the stems which I’d cleared of leaf skeletons.
The broccoli plants are in the way of my plan to relocate the raised bed to a slightly sunnier spot. Thinking they would not survive the cabbage white onslaught, it seemed that this plan would be easy enough to execute. Take out the dying plants then move the bricks and hugelbed material they contain to the centre of the garden. A bit of labour but job done.
Now, I’m left with the question of whether to try and relocate the PSB as well. I have heard of people who have done so with kale, so it might work. At the same time, part of my plan had included disposing of the woody stems in the new hugel/raised bed.
On balance, I think the latter action will prevail. After all, much as we love PSB, and I am an experimenter by nature, the first option would create a new headache. I don’t want broccoli plants in the regular compost unnecessarily, considering how long they take to break down.
Growing out of chaos 
With a little help from their friends, plants are so resilient. I did not know that these take a long time to break down
I think it’s because the stalks are woody – if they are chopped into pieces, they break down more quickly.
That makes sense
😊
My kale has been eaten too. I am hoping some will come back but I know some plants have died. Good luck with the blogging and with the relocation of the bed.
Thank you and fingers crossed for your kale.
You can hasten the decomposition by hitting the stalks with a hammer and crushing them before cutting into small pieces.
Thank could be quite cathartic 😊
It’s nice to see you finding a renewed interest in blogging about your garden. I hope you enjoy the series.
It might be a challenge when it gets darker in the evenings to write on consecutive days but definitely an interesting challenge.
It’s good to challenge ourselves, and fun too. Are you fairly far north? I know the days can be very short come winter.
Yes, not sure where in Canada we would be similar to but on the shortest day we’ll have 7-8 hours of light, depending on the weather.