My new perennial – Daubenton’s Kale
As previously mentioned, my mind has turned towards more perennials for next year, so that the garden takes care of itself a bit more. My research uncovered a perennial kale – Daubenton’s Kale, or Chou Daubenton – it appears to be much more common on the continent than here in Blighty. It rarely flowers, and so can’t be grown from seed, but is easy to propagate vegetatively if you know someone who has a plant.
A little more research showed me that an online friend of mine – Alison Tindale from the Back Yard Larder – was offering plants for sale, and soon one of hers was winging its way to me. I don’t know why I didn’t blog about it sooner; it arrived at the beginning of the month. But with all new arrivals I am a little wary of announcing their presence until I’m sure I haven’t killed them. I did name my new kale, though – he’s called Dobby!
As you can see from the photo, Dobby is settling in to his new home. He’s in a pot for now, until a suitable permanent location opens up in the autumn.
Perennial brassicas are subject to the same pests and diseases as their annual relatives – pigeons, whitefly, caterpillars. Pigeons aren’t a problem in my garden (they’re too well fed!) and for the most part the cabbage whites have been kept busy elsewhere this year. Dobby has developed some whitefly, but that’s not too serious.
Scorzonera seeds
In other news, the scorzonera seeds I sowed on 13th August have started to germinate. They are such an unusual shape that I conducted a little (and thoroughly unscientific) experiment – I sowed half of them horizontally and the other half vertically. The early birds were all sown vertically, but whether they were all sown the same way up is another matter….