Collards

 Today's the day ! I finally got the Collards planted out this morning very early .

I have been wanting to try collards for some time . The word collard just means cabbage when I look it up , but I am told they are different . Very popular in America and hard to find seeds over here until now . At least I couldn't find any until this year .

I touched base with Dan over on his "Home In The Sticks " Youtube channel for some tips  . 

Dan lives in East Central Mississippi  . It is a completely different zone to us here in Cornwall U.K., so maybe a lot of what they grow out there may not be relevant to me , but , hey , they love their collards !  So what better place to go for some advice . He has a very interesting channel , not just growing but cooking too and I will be checking all his videos out sometime soon . I love his accent and the way he calls me " ma'am " !

Anyway it does seem like I have to plant my collards in pretty much the same way as we do cabbages .

Checking in my little red note book - it says that 24 May 2022 - Sow 6 Collard seeds in small tray bedroom windowsill .

 I didn't make a note of which variety so when I come across the seed packet again I will edit  that in here later on ...... but I'm guessing they are all pretty much the same .

Anyway two didn't make it ...so that leaves four . 

I don't really mind as we have lots of different brassicas , all doing really well to see us over Winter and Spring . I just wanted to try these . I believe they grow really big and can be perennial if harvested carefully .

I decided to plant them in the bed where the Parsnips were ...or I should say ...weren't . Only two parsnips germinated out of a whole packet ...sigh .  Not happy about that , moving swiftly on .

We are having a horribly uncomfortable heatwave here right now . It is only 10am and already 79 degrees F . Please note if you are reading this from some far away hot country , that we are not used to this kind of heat here in the U.K. 

I am getting all gardening operations done very early in the morning to avoid the heat .I am watering (only the vegetable garden ) both morning and evening at the moment with a hose , but very soon I think there will be a hosepipe ban .

  The ground where I wanted to plant the collards was rock hard as there was nothing in there and I had given up on the parsnips , so I hadn't been watering it . So I had to get the fork out and break it up a little .

I planted them in quite deeply , apart from one where the earth was so hard I couldn't dig down any more . I will earth them up a bit more as we go into Autumn to stop them rocking in the wind and also to make a healthier and bushy plant . 

Being on the end of this bed will be a good place for them to be , should I decide to keep them as perennial collards .

                  That's all for now ......Over and out !