Unusual Vegetable Plants

Kale - Brassica Oleracea

Kale has always had a reputation of being a cheap unappetising vegetable and long been thought of as fit only for a cattle fodder plant mainly because if it is left too long before harvesting it can be very bitter. However, if only the very young growth is picked it can be quite tasty and with it's late planting time in June/July, as compared to most vegetables, it can give a very useful harvest when there are few similar green vegetables about. Depending what other vegetables you grow it can even be planted as a second crop, after an early harvest of something else like garden peas, for Winter and early Spring.

The best way to encourage new shoots to grow from November onwards is to start cutting and discarding old or yellowing leaves. New growth will follow and be ideal to cut between February and May.

Kale has another great advantage over some vegetables and that is it is very hardy and tough and will grow quite happily in poor soil. There are however, a couple of problems that face anybody who chooses to grow Kale. Firstly, as a member of the Cabbage family it is susceptible to club root and secondly,  pigeons are rather partial to it.