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TOP & FLOP CROPS

- Lynda Hallinan’s most – and least – successful crops this month.

As a child, my least favourite winter vegetables were cauliflower, pumpkin and silverbeet. As an adult, pumpkin remains my least favourite but roasting and dressing cauliflower with creamy tahini (or a blanket of cheese sauce) works wonders for my tastebuds. I’m still not too keen on silverbeet, though.

My mum boiled our silverbeet until the midribs were translucent and the green leaves were like soggy tissues – yuck! – whereas I tend to shred it finely into soups, casseroles and lasagne to get it past my children’s lips. It’s a like-it-or-lump-it vegetable in our house because it’s one of the few leafy greens that can be relied upon to flourish all winter. Indeed, it can be relied upon to flourish all year.

I’m sowing the pink-legged variety ‘Peppermint’ (Kings Seeds) this spring; I rather like the idea of silverbeet that looks like it has done the wild thing with a stalk of rhubarb.

Florence fennel

My spring row of Florence fennel – the bulbous variety – bolted to seed before I had a chance to eat any. Nonetheless, I left it in the soil, as its umbelliferous flowers are a boon for tiny beneficial insects and bees, plus I also save the seed each year for my spice rack.

I’ve always thought of Florence fennel as an annual, best sown direct in the cooler fringe seasons of early spring and early autumn, but now the stumps of last year’s plants have produced a bonus surprise crop of fat bulbs with no effort on my part. I love it when that happens!

Savoy cabbage

Growing vegetables isn’t without its share of frustrations. My favourite lettuce? ‘Iceberg’. The hardest lettuce to grow (in my garden at least)? ‘Iceberg’. Ditto crinkly savoy cabbages. My favourite cabbages – this seems true for white cabbage butterfly caterpillars, too – seem to deliberately spite me by refusing to flourish. I can grow red cabbages with no trouble, but I reckon they’re good for nothing but coleslaw – and there’s a limit to how much coleslaw I want to eat. Here’s hoping my attempt to raise the purple European variety ‘Verona Purple Savoy’ (Kings Seeds) proves fruitful. It’s more pink than purple and puts on its most colourful show in cold climates.

‘Rainbow Lights’ silverbeet is almost too pretty to pick and eat. This colourful chard adds a pop of cheerful colour to any winter vege garden. If its clashing stems of pink, orange, red and gold offend, sow ‘Cardinal’ for red stems only.

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2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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