I Got My Cauliflower And Broccoli Seeds

I got my cauliflower and broccoli seeds today and am still waiting on beet seeds. The cauliflower is Early Snowball which I'm familiar with but the broccoli is called Romanesco. It's an Italian 16th century cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower so I already like it better. It grows in a fractal pattern with a spiral structure that is a bit disconcerting to my antiquated notions of form and texture. I would call it mutated if it showed up unannounced in my garden. When cooked it has a texture similar to cauliflower and a mild nutty flavor..

I'm gung ho for a milder broccoli. I'm also a bit more open-minded after bad mouthing the French peas only to find out they were an improvement over what I was used to. The Romanesco broccoli are easier to grow for a fall harvest because heads form best in cooler temperatures. The cauliflower I have under shade cloth now are struggling to form heads. Too hot!..

The Early Snowball Cauliflower and Romanesco Broccoli seeds that I just got come from a company called Botanical Interests. They do not recommend direct seeding outdoors. I guess to get full value from your purchased seeds they should be individually planted in containers to increase germination rates. I'll throw caution to the wind and sprinkle them in a shallow furrow and put a board on top. It is wasteful to do it this way because you have to thin them out like beets, but I enjoy the process, and consider it well worth the price of a pack of seeds..

In the heat of summer I'll water the boards in the afternoon to keep the soil and seeds under them wet and cool. It's reccomended that the transplants should be 24" apart with 36" rows. That's a lot of room. I've got melon mounds that are becoming vacant, and it sounds like one plant per mound will be perfect..

The thick layer of straw under my cantaloupe did not prevent the sow bugs from chewing on the bottom of them. I think my increasing the water to them contributed to the problem. There were no milipeads though, and they are what seem to do the most damage by actually eating through the skin and getting to the melon. This starts the melon decay and the whole fruit goes bad. The ground was not allowed to dry out this year, and all of my melons are incredibly sweet and juicy..

I seem to be increasing the water every year and am rewarded by the results. I think I would garden just for the joy of creating beauty, then the melons start ripening and I eat my words. Cantaloupe for breakfast, honeydew at lunch and watermelon for desert become a welcome habit that I look forward to all day long. Keeping them in the fridge is like getting ice cream three times a day..

White powdery mildew is showing up on the zucchini leaves, a sure sign that fall is in process. The cooler nights and moister environment encourages the germination of their spores. It can be treated with an organic product called Serenade but I never have because the plants always last until the frosts kill them. I pulled up the mound of zucchini that we stopped picking from, because we couldn't keep up, and it had covered a 9' diameter circle. That's a lot of room..

No wonder not everyone wants to grow zucchini. You could grow 6 ten foot rows of lettuce in the 60 square feet that the zucchini took up, and replant it three times throughout the summer. I threw the zucchini plants on top of a sprawling tomato plant, so fall cleanup has begun. When I throw a tarp over it, it will make a cozy mouse town for the winter..