advice please on growing Cabbages over Winter

Can any one give me advice please about growing cabbages over Autumn/Winter. l dont usually grow anything over these seasons. But wanted to try cabbages now to avoid the white butterflies. I'm a disabled gardener and didnt want to struggle with netting in the summer, so l sown cabbage seeds and have loads now of nice size seedlings to plant in my raised beds. But my question is do l need to put cloches over them ? l think they are' greyhound and Wheeler' Plus is there anything else l can sow now to plant in my 2 raised bed that will grow over Winter ? many thanks for any replies.

 

Hello, well as someone who in their youth thought it would be lovely to grow my own veg, but soon realised that life was against me, my only memory of trying to grow winter cabbages is that the pigeons ate the lot.

Maybe someone else has happier tales to tell.

 

Cabbage whites are still about and pigeons love cabbage all year so you really do need to try and net them. We use a system of hoops with clips to hold the netting tight enough to allow rain in but not pests. It has to be high enough for the netting not to sit on the foliage as butterflies will lay eggs thru the net if it does. Maybe someone could help you?

Greyhound is an early cabbage of the pointy type and is not hardy enough to stand thru winter but if autumn is kind you may get enough growth to get some good eating. Cloches will help with that. Wheeler's Imperial is a good winter cabbage that tastes even better after a frost.

This info from the RHS may help you: Cabbages

 

oh dear, l never thought about pigeons eating them :( we get a few on the bird table that on the patio so l can see the birds from my bedroom ( l have severe ME and bedbound a lot of the time ) Husband has lots of bird feeders around the garden and so far not had any trouble them eating what we grow, (apart from all the red currents this year. :( , so l guess we will have to net them after all :(

 

Ah yes. I grow red currants for the birds too.

 

I've not grown cabbage for over 20 yrs but I never had pigeon damage, it was mostly caterpillars and slugs, the slugs get inside and eat away.
Having said that I think, could be wrong, you need to pick a proper overwintering type, I always grew savoys, or sometimes spring cabbage that hearts up early the following year,

I've not heard of Wheeler, should check it out, but Greyhound was always a summer cabbage in my day.

 

Could you get some permanent protection structure with easy openings built for your raised beds @Peaceful Gardener ? Sort of inverted raised beds with a roof made from fine mesh or similar to keep the attackers outside.

I have a batch of Winter Purslane going in fruit trays in the greenhouse, I plan to put them in the raised bed once the summer stuff is out. Not sure how tasty or useful it is, but anything fresh in the winter is welcome.

I'll also try to remember to sow my Mooli seeds in buckets to see how it goes. The Child says Mooli is delicious and an absolute necessity so we'll give it a try.

 

If you can get a copy of Geoff Hamilton's DVD set - Cottage Garden, Ornamental Kitchen Garden and Paradise garden - @Peaceful Gardener you'll see how to make cloches and insect nets as permanent structures that are easy to manoeuvre and adjust to allow planting, harvesting, weeding whilst warming the soil and protecting your plants depending on th etime of year.

 

spikey sticks or bamboo poles may dissuade pidgies as they are quite fat birds

 

ohhh lv got that dvd collection somewhere.. forgot about it,, will be sure to find it today, lv not watched it in yrs, many thanks for tip.

 

lv had a mad idea this morning of making a scarecrow to put nk to our raised beds, after l found some old jeans and shirts when decluttered wardrobe yesterday..wonder if it would work....( l think l just like the fun idea of making one lol )

 

It'll be fun but not as effective as @Adam I's sticks idea

 

Garden plan today is to go check and see if the 4 cabbage seedlings ( another 25 left to go out) that were planted out last few days to see if still survived , will put some spiky sticks in as tip given on here by Adam ( many thanks )... memo to me, to check what variety sowed, bad habit l have of not labeling anything :( Hubby to turn out another container off patio that had summer salads in.. that soil now to top up the raised beds. See if any runner beans left to pick off arch trellies ( left a few unreachable ones for nk years seeds.) Then pick all the green toms and pull them out of the raised beds to make way for the cabbages. Treated myself to a hand made garden trug , delivered last week, .. l cant garden much, hubby does the hard work, bless him, but l do all the planning and harvesting,, my new trug so nice, l dont want to get it dirty by putting anything in it lol...

 

There are still plenty of Cabbage Whites around here so I'd agree about some form of netting/cloche to protect your cabbage seedlings. I also thought Greyhound was more a summer variety as @pete said.
I've not grown any cabbage or brocolli this year but in previous years, I've found the slugs more of a problem in my raised beds than the pigeons tho we have plenty of Wood pigeons coming to the bird feeders daily.
Best of luck whichever method you choose

 

just been to look at the seedlings we planted out last few day.s.planted 6 now so far ( 2 a day to see if survive) so far they are looking good. We have just put some sharp pointy sticks around them ( tip from Adam on here,) and we have put cloche over..still got more to plant out, they are about 4 " high looking very healthy and new leaves coming on..so here's hoping. l cant find label so had a rumage just in my seed box. box really jumble, job for me to sort out over Winter. lv found pk of 'wheeler imperial' it says sow june/aug.. and harvest Oct as it says dwarf cabbage, so im hoping its them ,as they do seem to be growing really fast..l know l sown some of them in August so im hoping its them that iv got coming on..was so surprised though as pk says exp date 2021 !!! If it is 'wheeler imperial' and ready by late October ,if weather stays good... that will be fantastic Found the pk of greyhound, pk says sow march to july..and l remember l sowed a few of them in aug as well, to see if they would germinate..im just going to have to wait and see what happens and if l can identify them later lol. Not seen any cabb whites out today..thanks for the good luck