By Stan Zervas
Back in the end of October I planted my winter garden plot at the Avant Community Garden in downtown Benicia. Since I was a little late to the game I planted transplants of broccoli, collard greens, lettuce, Swiss chard, and direct seeded carrots and beets. I battled the slugs and weeds all winter and have eaten most of what was planted. I still have a few beets, carrots and Swiss chard to finish off before I can amend the soil and plant my spring/summer garden.
For broccoli this year I chose 'Green Comet'; (Brassica oleracea var. capitate) It is an early variety of broccoli that is known for producing numerous side shoots later in the season. As advertised I got nice moderate-sized heads of broccoli. And then it seems after every warm and wet period the plants produced a flush of small side shoots. I think I harvested 3 times. We will see if I can squeeze another round out of these plants, I bet I can get more if I control my urge to pull them out and plant warm-season veggies. Like most gardeners I tend to jump the gun and plant the summer garden too soon!
Benicia Community Gardens is now part of Sustainable Solano, more info about all their programs is at www.sustainablesolano.org
Source: ucanr.edu