Brb just tending to my broccoli

Sowing indoors and outdoors

You can directly sow in mid to late spring when soil temperatures are above 7 degrees C. For a late summer or early autumn rop, carry on sowing into July or early autumn crop, carry on sowing into july. Sow two or three seeds per station initially.

Spacing: 30cm / row spacing: 45cm (sow for mini veg you should reduce this to 20cm)

Care

Water well in dry spells to keep the plants evenly moist and use a mulch to lock in moisture. In wet weather, younge pants will be vulnerable to slug or snail attacks. You may need to protect from birds and with summer heading crops, mesh to keep out butterflies, to prevent harvests becoming soiled by caterpillars and their poo.

Harvesting

Time to harvest is generally 12-15weeks, although ‘baby’ varieties re pickined earlier, for example, ‘Sakura’ is quicker at six to 12 weeks. Pick before flower buds open.

Drop the harvests into salted water to kill off any hidden caterpillars. Steam the florets to retain flavour or oven char for use as a side veg or tossed with other veg in couscous. You can also puree for soup as a pasta sauce. Excess can be frozen.

Top tip: The fresher the spears the better the flavour, so eat as soon as possible after harvesting