Your summer crops may have been cleared from your Veg patch but you can now plant winter cabbage. For many varieties it is too late (August) to grow from seed but you can buy suitable plants from nurseries, mail order or local market stalls.
Some loose leaf cabbage grown as spring greens can be sown in August.

Cultivating Winter Cabbage

• Plant at 5-6 leaf stage allowing 2 feet between plants (less for spring greens).
• The soil should be firm, contain plenty of well rotted compost and be well limed.
• Just before planting, rake in 3oz per sq yd of balanced fertiliser.
• Hoe occasionally and water if the weather is dry. Harvest in very late winter

Varieties to Try

• Spring Cabbage Hero is a ball cabbage that will stand through winter to produce a solid head from early May.
• Tundra F1 is solid and sweet with crisp heads, ideal for winter salads.
• Thompson Morgan selection of plants and seeds
• Spring Advantage is an excellent new variety suitable for providing both spring greens or small to medium sized hearted spring cabbage. From an August sowing it will keep well into April.
• January King a hardy winter variety with heads which are crispy and crunchy and full of flavour.
• Savoy cabbages can be grown through winter for spring use

For more on Brassicas read

More Cabbage Tips

• Plant   Spring Cabbage seedlings slightly deeper than they were in the seed bed during September.
• Do not plant Cabbages in the same place other brassicas have just been grown.
• Plant closer together in September and   thin  in March eating the leaves as Spring greens
• White varieties are ideal for coleslaw and are used to make sauerkraut.