Cabbages are king

These are the last of the second cabbages, difficult to tell the scale from this picture but we ate three of them as a side vegetable today at lunch. I cleared the ground they were on and then dug it over. It was wonderfully warm and sunny for February and I was soon down to shirt sleeves.

The daffodils are getting ready to burst open, it won't be long if the weather stays like this. I sorted out the last of the potatoes, taking home those good enough to eat. The other I will chit for this years crop.

Plot 68 bathed in sunshine. Not much growing except the grass, I'll have to cut soon. 

The hole story

The broad beans have made a slight recovery, in fact a better recovery that I thought they would. The cold wind and frost has damaged them, some of the plants that fell have not stood up again but most are battling on. I'm sure the damage wouldn't have been so bad if the first part of the winter had been so mild.

A closer inspection shows how the fallen stems have rotten but the plants are still growing so we should get beans from them I hope.

 If we don't my back-up plan has been put into action. I dug up my parsnips and prepared the soil for some new beans. Digging is hard work but dibbing the soil and dropping in beans is the fun part. I planted a mix of Masteriece Longpod and Aquadulce  again, lets see how long they take to catch up their sister plants.

Making the zig-zag pattern is very satisfying and will help the plants support themselves when the grow.

I had decided to dig up the remaining parsnips, this years crop had been disappointingly small and with their foliage going down I doubted they would get any bigger. As you can see above most were as small as I thought, not really big enough to bother eating. I think the dry spring last year was to blame, they never really got going until too late.

But as always the garden surprised me. There were about a dozen bigger parsnips as well which I've taken home to eat.

Frozen beans

A flying visit realised my worst fears. The beans which were so lofty only a week ago haven't coped with the sub zero temperatures. They were pretty much all frost damaged and lying limp on the ground. I don't know if they will recover or not? A pity because they were doing so well.

The garlic isn't wasn't badhit but as you see their leaves are floppy too. I suppose the cold weather will at least kill off some of the bugs and pests.

The artichokes have taken a tumble too. They tend to fall with the first frosts so I'm surprised they've last this long really. Still no signs of my rhubarb pushing through yet but that's probably just as well given the weather.