Early Cauliflowers in your Cold Frame

Wouldn't it be nice to have a fresh from the garden cauliflower in June? Long before vegetables were routinely flown in from Africa, gardeners all over the UK used to do just that. In fact with cold frames, cloches and modern cultivars it is very nearly possible to eat fresh cauliflower all year round.

Plant the seeds into your cold frame towards the end of October. The seedlings should be overwintered in the cold frame and come the end of February you should be able to harden off the seedlings. Arround this time set up your cloche over the bed where the cauliflower will go to allow the soil to warm. After a couple of weeks you can plant out the seedlings, underneath the cloche. At this point you can also start off your maincrop cauliflower seeds in the cold frame.

With the cauliflowers under the cloche, ensure you keep to the usual routine of brassica care, including watering, feeding etc. Come early June the heads should be starting to form. At this statge its worthwhile remembering that you can harvest them whie they are still small and they're still very tasty. Doing this obviously helps to reduce the glut that will enevitiably happen otherwise.

Done correctly, it is simple to have fresh home grown cauliflower from June until late October. Yum!