"How to Grow Cabbages"

Cabbages have been a staple part of the diet in many parts of the world for hundreds of years, and were originally cultivated as a food crop more than two thousand years ago.

If you grow them in your vegetable garden you will be following generations of traditional gardeners. Cabbages are high in vitamin C and B vitamins and when stored in the form of Sauerkraut are a good source of vitamin K.

Growing: Starting your plants from seed is easy enough and as long as you look after your seedlings, they will grow perfectly well, although do take some time to mature. Certain varieties will take 5 months to grow to their fullest capacity. Some gardeners therefore prefer to buy small plants instead.

However, you don't have to wait until your plants are fully grown before eating, so the choice is yours! If you are using seed, make sure you buy the right variety for your region and season. Cabbages come in a variety of shapes and types, and even colours!

Some need to be sown in the spring, others later in the year. Check on your seed packet for recommended sowing advice.

In general, you should prepare a tray with seed compost. Make sure your tray is well drained.Sow a few seeds of different varieties for more interesting meals later! Keep the seeds moist and warm until they germinate and grow to about 4inches or 10 cm tall before putting them out in the vegetable patch. Again, double check on your seed packet for variety and regional variations.

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Savoy ( Spring ) Savoy King

Flowering Northern Lights Mixed

Kalibos.

All these are available ( from seed!) at Thompson and Morgan online seed suppliers.

Cabbages at Thompson and Morgan UK link
Thompson and Morgan US link
Thompson and Morgan Homepage link for all other countries.

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When you put your new plants out, give them plenty of room to grow, keep them weeded and watered, and they will do the rest! When you put your plants out in the garden the ground should be well prepared and all weeds and large stones removed where possible. Cabbages need light so don't plant them in a shady spot, but they don't need full sun. In fact, full sun will cause many types to run to seed and become inedible.

For this reason, it's always good to check for regional varieties before you plant. In a long hot summer, cabbages will struggle, and could be a constant job to look after them. Plants that mature before the summer months are often preferable, but having said that, new hybrid varieties are becoming available all the time. It's worth looking around.

Caring: Brassicas are generally quite a hardy species, and they tend to grow themselves with a little early caring. One word of warning though: the cabbage white butterfly could attack. If you live in a region with plenty of wildlife and a good butterfly population, watch out for the beautiful white butterfly - a monster in disguise! The butterfly lays her eggs on the underside of your leaves and within days you have a hoarde of the worlds most hungriest caterpillars.

Rather than using products to protect them, good observation is usually all that is needed, unless of course you are growing hundreds of plants. Walk along the line every morning and check under the leaves. The eggs are very obvious, and should be wiped off, or remove the whole leaf.

If you miss the hatching and find plenty of baby caterpillars on the leaves, remove them asap. They can devour a whole crop in a couple of days. Feed them to the chickens if you can, but whatever you do, don't let them near your cabbages.

Happy Gardening!

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• Recipes and menus to help incorporate the fruit and vegetables into your daily diet.

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