Last week I managed to scamper out to the garden and sow some kale.  At present the seedlings are just tiny (and suffering a bit from all the recent rain) but in my dreams they will grow into a beautiful bed of kale like the one pictured above!  Last winter we grew Cavolo Nero for the first time and were very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, so this year I thought I would make sure we have some kale for the winter months.  

Kale, (also known as Borecole) is a member of the cabbage family, with a reputation for being able to grow anywhere.   Kale is believed to have been cultivated for several thousand years and the original wild cabbage still grows around the shores of the Mediterranean.  Its botanical name is Brassica oleracea acephala.  "Acephala" means "headless"  and unlike firm-headed cabbages, kale is distinguished by having no heart.  The open form means the leaves accumulate more vitamins A and C, and more antioxidant carotenoids than heading cabbages whose tightly furled inner leaves never see daylight.  Kale is also a good source of vitamins B6 and K and minerals such as iron and calcium.  

Gerard grew a bed of different kale varieties in his display garden last season and they looked just beautiful with the variety of leaf shapes and colours.  


Kale can be left growing happily in the garden and you can pop out and harvest leaves as needed.  The deeper green leaves are more nutritious.  Smaller leaves are great to use for salad greens and larger leaves can be cooked as a leafy green.   The flavour is improved by frost, and some of our Dutch customers recommend freezing the harvested leaves before cooking them, to achieve the same effect.  Kale is a key ingredient in traditional borecole - mashed potato served with ribbons of kale and a spicy sausage.


In the kitchen I usually just cut kale into ribbons and add it to whatever I am cooking.  I like it better than cabbage because it holds it shape so well. 

I thought I would have a look around for other recipes for kale and discovered that "kale chips" are extremely popular - they're even sold as a prepacked snack!  I'm definitely going to try making these (I have high hopes that the children will like them!) just as soon as my kale has grown big enough.  Here is the recipe - simplicity itself and it sounds really yummy:

Crispy Kale

• Preheat oven to 150°F.
• Rinse and dry the kale (it is important that the kale is DRY before baking). 
• Remove the stems and tough centre ribs.

• Cut or tear into large pieces and toss with olive oil in a bowl, making sure that all the leaves are coated with oil (get your hands in there!).  Then sprinkle with salt.
• Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet.  Bake until crisp.   Check them frequently as they don't take long.

Onions... Now here's a vegetable that we all use in its many forms. 

Onion varieties differ in the length of day required to make a bulb.  Those requiring fewer daylight hours are known as short-day varieties and are typically grown in the north where the daylight hours in summer are shorter than in the south.  It is important to choose an onion variety that is suitable for your area.  For example, if you were to sow a long-day variety in a very northern region, the daylight hours may be too short to to initiate good bulb development. 

For that reason, most of our varieties at Kings Seeds are NZ intermediate day length onions and can be sown in Spring for Autumn harvest.  In Northern and coastal regions you may be able to also sow in Autumn for harvesting in Spring, because of our temperate climate.  

Aside from day length, onions also come in different types so we thought we would have a look at that this week:

Thin Skin Bulbing type Onions

Thin skin bulbing type onions tend to be sweeter varieties which have a shorter storage time.   Examples are Musona White Round, Ringmaster and Yellow Sweet Spanish.

Thick Skin Bulbing type Onions

Thick skin bulbing type onions are better to select for longer storage times.  Examples are Red Amposta, Red Brunswick, Italian Longkeeper and Stuttgart Longkeeper.

Small Bulbing type

Examples are Borettana, Pearl Drop and Purplette and these are best suited for pickling.

Shallots

Shallots are normall grown from division, but hybrid varieties do set seed.  Shallots are sweet and a great onion for the gourmet kitchen.

Bunching type Onions

Bunching type onions are spring onions and they come in various colours which looks great in the salad bowl.  Examples are Spring Onion (Ishikura in our range), Red Bunching and White Welsh.  These are not winter dormant, therefore can be sown when Chives/Garlic Chives cannot.  They can therefore be used as a winter substitute for chives if harvested very young.

Leeks

Leeks are a cool weather plant, so are best sown late summer for autumn/winter harvest.  For long white shanks, sow in trenches (like potatoes) to avoid exposure to sunlight and mound soil up around them.  You can use a broomstick to form the holes and drop seedlings in (not closing in the sides) to effect the same result.
Tip:  For baby leeks, use Lungo della Riviera and plant closer together to get thinner stems.

Chives or Garlic Chives

Chives and Garlic Chives are day length sensitive and become dormant in winter.  Sow them from spring through to late summer.

Garlic

We are often asked for garlic seed.  We do not have garlic seed, as garlic is grown from individual garlic cloves, or from garlic bulbs for a faster bulkier crop.  These should be sown on the shortest day (June) and harvested on the longest day (December).  Choose New Zealand grown garlic to use for planting as it is least likely to have been treated to prevent sprouting.  Sow by pushing the clove into the soil.

Some Tips

• Onions are very easy to transplant.
• They like constant soil moisture with irrigation of around 2.5cm each week.
• They like to grow alongside carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and beet.
• They do not like to grow alongside beans.
• Avoid growing your crop in the same spot for more than two seasons in a row - rotate with another crop.
• When the onions begin to develop skins and the tops are falling over, pull them up and leave them to sun cure for a week before removing tops.
• If any of your onions start to flower, pull them up and eat them straight away - they won't store well.
• Some onions don't set seed eg. Tree Onion or Walking onion - they are similar to a Spring Onion but can be considered stringy and tasteless.

It's so nice enjoying the garden at this time of year - everything is cropping beautifully and you can enjoy looking at your garden beds full of flowers and harvest your vegetables and herbs for eating straight away or preserving.  However, the time will come when the summer crops are finished and you are considering what to put in the space left vacant.   A really good option for vacant garden space is to sow a green manure crop.  Last year I completely missed my window of opportunity for sowing a green manure crop so I thought that it would be good this season to have a look at green manure crops before the time comes to sow them.     Gerard gave the staff lots of info last week on the whys and hows of green manure so we thought we'd pass it on....

How to ...

When sowing a green manure crop, sow into freshly tilled ground.  Allow the crop to grow and then mow the crop down BEFORE FLOWERING.  You don't want your green manure crop to go to seed and fill your garden with seeds that will become next year's weeds!  After mowing down, allow the plant matter to dry out before you hoe it in.  (If the location of your green manure crop allows it, you could run the lawnmower over it before hoeing  in).   This process will take about 60 days for most green manure crops, although Mustard can be quicker, taking about 40 days from sow to mow. 

Why to ...

There are many reasons why sowing a green manure crop is a good idea for the health of your garden.  Weeds will quickly take advantage of vacant space in your garden - sow a green manure crop to occupy the space instead.  Having a green manure crop in place prevents erosion.  Empty plots in your garden can be exposed to panning and caking caused by the sun, and you can lose precious topsoil to wind and rain erosion. 

Once your crop is in place and growing, the benefits include increased levels of beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil, soil does not dry out as easily and is broken up and aerated, allowing more microbes and insects in to do their work, and the crop can encourage beneficial insects by providing them with a food source.  Some crops can aid with pest control in the soil (e.g.. Marigold).

When your crop is mown down and dug in, the broken down plant material adds humus, which helps with soil moisture retention. 

Which one? ...

It does matter which green manure crop you sow.  It is good practice to ensure that you are working to good crop rotation principles.  Consider what has just been growing in that spot and avoid sowing a green manure crop of the same species.  For example, if you have been growing cabbages or broccoli in a garden bed, don't sow a green manure crop that is also a brassica (eg radish or mustard).  You would be doing far more good for your garden if you chose an unrelated species as a green manure crop (eg Phacelia). 

It is also worth considering what crops will be follow on from your green manure crop in that garden bed.  For example, if you are going to be growing a crop of leafy greens, you may choose a green manure crop that will be a nitrogen fixer - choose Blue Lupin, Crimson Clover, Lucerne or a mix which contains Peas.

A tour of some of our Green Manure crops....

 

 

Spring Manure Mix

We usually recommend our Spring Manure Mix as an excellent green manure.  We have formulated this mix to be the best choice for all year round sowing for the following reasons:
- it is frost hardy in most areas for most of the year - it may even handle a light sprinkling of snow!
- it provides huge bulk
- it contains two legumes (pea and lupin), for excellent nitrogen fixing qualities
- oats are included to provide green matter, with lots of fibre and carbon to add to your soil.

 

 

Mixed Grain Carbon Crop

Our Mixed Grain Carbon Crop is a blend of wheat, oats and barley.  A benefit of this crop is that it can be harvested as stock fodder. The wheat and oats in this mix are frost hardy but barley is not.

 

 

Buckwheat

Buckwheat can be sown after any crop as is it not related to any other species, and it is great at attracting beneficial insects.  Buckwheat is frost sensitive and prefers warm soils - sow in late spring and summer.
 

 

 

Phacelia

Phacelia is a very fast growing crop which looks very pretty with its purple flowers.  It has a long growing period and can be sown right up until late April and again from September onwards. 

 

 

Mustard

Mustard is a brassica - avoid sowing where other brassica crops have been growing.  Mustard has a fumigant effect on the soil - it will kill bad bugs but will also kill good bugs.

 

 

Radish

Radish breaks up the soil to depth, and has a unique effect because it releases a sterilising gas - this makes Radish a good choice where you have a problem insect in the soil that needs a good blasting!
Some other green manure crops include Lucerne, Soybean and Crimson Clover.

We hope this has been helpful info and that you are inspired to get some green manure crops in, especially if you haven't tried it before.  I'm certainly planning to try it this year!....no weeding, no bare, empty space looking reproachfully at me, lovely healthy soil for next growing season ... it sounds like a great idea to me!

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