A different way with cabbages

At the recent talk from Clive Bevan he said that he grew his giant cabbages in large bottomless pots set into the soil. The idea is that the lower leaves are kept up off the main body of soil and are therefore out of reach of slugs.

It also allows better air circulation beneath the plants and because the lower leaves aren't actually resting on the soil they won't rot off and spread to other leaves. With all this in mind I have set these pot rings into the bed I'm going to grow my cabbages this season. I will tamp down the soil inside them so they're rock hard and plant into this during the next few days. The varieties I'm growing are Brigadier (green) and Red Drumhead.

I shall have to make sure I water more regularly than usual so that they don't go short once established, and I will also be covering all the plants with a cover of some form to keep butterflies off. A few weeks ago I gave this bed a good dose of general fertiliser with added seaweed meal. I will foliar spray during the season once the plants are well rooted.