Growing leafy brassicas in reused plastic juice bottles- is it worth it?

Most of us grow brassicas the old fashion way. We grow seedlings and transplant them into the garden. We keep them watered and wait for them to grow heads. But what when they refuse to grow one? Is the problem in the variety which we grow, the conditions or climate? Can we grow them some other way?

No heads issue

Growing brassicas in my garden has been a real problem no matter what I did. The cold spring and autumn shortened our season so much that there was no way to grow any brassica heads. The cabbages and kale would miss that initial spring boost, suffer through the summer heat, and rot under the constant cold and rain in autumn. A few years back, I decided that the situation was going nowhere, and started growing leafy kale. The leafy kale turned out to be a good solution, and I grew never more kale that season.

The situation with seeds in Croatia is fairly bad. We are a part of the EU, and should be able to grow and buy any EU seed here, but the reality is completely different. Most stores sell only a couple of varieties, and I just can't find the varieties which I'd like to grow. Ordering from other European countries doesn't work, the shipping fees are huge and the corruption in the postal services is an issue. There are big chances we'd never get our packages. This is why I needed to find another solution.

Plastic bottles as pots, yes, please

I decided to grow all my brassicas as leafy brassicas and collect as many leaves as possible. Leaves on brassicas are all perfectly edible... Read more here

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We've been busy at rollingdownmygarden new page

New posts on https://rollingdownmygarden.com 1) Apple harvest: compote and dehydrated apples 08/23/2022 2) Lazy Sunday lunch: All-in-one pot 08/21/2022 3) Garden diary: still dealing with drought 08/19/2022 4) Mini buhtle: sweet jam and chocolate buns 08/14/2022 5) Pasta with cabbages-krpice sa zeljem 08/10/2022 6) Watering the overheated garden: When and how 08/08/2022 7) Garden diary:late summer sowing 08/03/2022 8) Blackberries: how to store them for winter 07/31/2022 9) Garden diary: July side garden progress 07/29/2022

The anti-hail netting is up

After years of worrying if we'll get a destructive storm or not, this year we finally said that it was enough and ordered anti-hail netting. It took a while to get it. Probably due to a lot of storms around us, and the increase in orders, but last Friday it finally arrived and we decided to install it right away. The best way to install an anti-hail net is to secure it on a strong metal frame. This way the netting can last up to 10 years without much maintenance, but that's not possible in our garden. Having a forest garden means that every possible flat surface needs a way to be cleaned. Once the autumn starts the garden is full of leaves that cover everything. We need an easy way to clean the netting, and having a fixed netting isn't an option... Read more here As of June 2022, Rolling down my garden will be moving to its own side: https://rollingdownmygarden.com Full new posts can be read on the new page

Tomatoes are out of control

For most of the past week, I was away from the garden. The weather changed abruptly, and after a few warm weeks, we again had an episode of cold, rainy, and windy days. Of course, as soon as we get rain that lasts a couple of days, it takes at least 48h for the garden to dry enough to be able to enter it. Still, I wasn't too upset since I've done everything that had to be done, and honestly I needed a break. I really thought that after the break I will just dig the garden again and that would be it, but I didn't count on the tomato's ability to grow. This year I'm growing my tomatoes differently... Read more here As of June 2022, Rolling down my garden will be moving to its own side: https://rollingdownmygarden.com Full new posts can be read on the new page.

Orchard in May

This could be a good orchard year. Despite the cold March and the beginning of April, the rest was unusually warm. There wasn't a single day with frost temperatures, and the orchard has used this fact in the best possible way. All of the trees and bushes have formed small fruits, and for the first time in a long period, we could have a nice harvest. Last year most of the flowers froze, and the only things that survived the frosty April were blackberries and quinces, which started flowering much later than the rest of the orchard. The blackberries gave a nice amount of fruits, and quinces had lots of fruits, but none of them managed to ripe. They all started rotting before the harvest time. This year could be different. We didn't have any frost or damaging weather during the flowering period. Now that the fruits are growing it is hot, but we're still getting enough rain to be in the average amount. There aren't any diseases present right now, and if we don't get a ...

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