Today 9th of September, I transplanted some tiny seedling kale plants into small pots to grow on until they are big enough to be planted outdoors.
These kale will grow during autumn and winter until just before spring when they’ll start to flower.
Apart from the leaves, you can also eat the flowers and they’re delicious eaten raw in salads or by just taking a mouthful!
@rooftopveg Kale Making Flowers #containergarden #organicvegetable #rooftopgardening #growingkale #kale #kaleflowers
♬ Le Caire – Sofiane Pamart
The technique is to sow first seeds all together in a small container and after a couple of weeks, transplant the plants into bigger individual pots.
@rooftopveg Repotting Kale Plants #rooftopgarden #growingkale
♬ Mood Indigo – Nina Simone
You might be wondering, why go to all this trouble? Why not just sow or plant outside?
The reason gardeners grow bigger plants before planting outside is because of predators, – namely slugs and snails.
Below are two tiny kale plants. On the left is before and on the right, – after everything has been eaten.
The damaged plant can grow back but, usually the slug comes back the next evening to finish off the job for good, leaving the damaged plant no chance of recovery.
Although my pallet garden makes it easier to avoid slugs and snails damaging plants, this plant was situated in a container much closer to the ground in more of a humid slug loving environment.