It is autumn, time to observe the leaves on deciduous trees changing colour and falling to the ground!
With the temperature cooling down as winter approaches, it is the best time to plant broccoli seedlings in the garden, along with other brassica plants like cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, bok choy and more. Their common pest the white butterfly, which lay eggs and hatch larvae of hungry green caterpillars, are not as active in the cool weather. The white butterfly is often mistakenly referred to as a moth which spins a cocoon, but this pest has upright wings, flies around the garden during the day and forms a chrysalis in the pupae stage of its life cycle.
When you grow your own broccoli, you can plant seedlings which will grow green or purple, small sprouting or a large head of broccoli, allowing you to enjoy the variety in your garden.
You can protect broccoli from white butterflies laying their eggs by netting young seedlings or placing butterfly decoys around the garden. The pretend butterfly decoys aim to deter the territorial white butterfly from laying their eggs, tricking them into believing the plant is already occupied. This can save the leaves from caterpillars eating them.
Enjoy spending time in your garden watching the broccoli grow. You will notice the leaves getting bigger, so be on the lookout for any caterpillars which may themselves be getting big, healthy and strong from eating the leaves. They will be preparing for metamorphosis inside their chrysalis, resulting in more white butterfly pests in your garden. By removing the caterpillars as you see them, your broccoli has a good chance of growing from among the large green leaves.
Broccoli grows large, small, sprouting, or tall and is an unopened flower when you eat it. If you do not pick the broccoli in time or are waiting for it to get bigger, especially the sprouting varieties similar to broccolini, you may miss the chance to eat it before it opens to grow its tall flowers with yellow petals. If this happens, or you have decided to leave one plant in the garden, you will get the opportunity to watch the flowers grow into long thin pods with broccoli seeds inside. Let the seed pods dry and you can collect the tiny brown round seeds to grow more broccoli seedlings the next autumn.
It is the end and the beginning……..
Here is what you need to get growing in autumn:
- Book – Gaye the Garden Girl, the broccoli and the caterpillars
- Packet of broccoli seeds
- Broccoli seedlings
- Seedlings of other vegetables including – kale, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, silverbeet, lettuce
- Cow manure
- Compost