Saturday, 6 June 2009

A Sproutless Christmas

Things have been growing in our garden; some of it well and some of it slowly, but there was one plant (or so I thought) that was growing particularly well. Our Brussels Sprouts germinated well and I thought we would have surplus at Christmas; but then the slugs gobbled them up and left us with only one. Or at least, there was one plant pot left that had something growing in it. Determined to have some Brussels Sprouts for Christmas I have been giving this 'plant' extra special treatment. It has been staked in the ground to keep it strong and upright and I have been making sure it gets lots of water.

I did have my doubts about it. It didn't look quite like the strong trunks with little balls surrounding it that I had expected. But, in my ignorance, I just thought that the little white flowers and spindly leaves were the early summer growth, which would somehow transform in later months to the Brussels Sprout plant I was expecting. Then at the weekend a friend commented that she had not seen one look like that before and my doubts grew stronger. Our Garden Helpers grandparents confirmed today what I had suspected but tried so hard not to believe. I have grown a very healthy 50cm high weed.

And to top it off we will have no homegrown Brussels Sprouts for Christmas.
Posted by at 20:47

6 comments:

  1. Oops. We grow quite a lot of them.

    Shame about Christmas, though.
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  2. if you just sprinkle some seeds about you might find you get some anyhow- we had a surprise crop last year!
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  3. You could try the garden centre. You will be able to pick up some seedlings ready to plant out.
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  4. Oh dear I think you should do as zooarchaeologist suggests and sow some in the space they were allocated and just let nature get on with, they may become the best tasting sprouts ever :)
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  5. I'd sow some more seeds - most brussel sprouts are ready to harvest in approx 30-32 weeks, it's a bit less to Christmas but not much so you should get some by then. Go for it!
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  6. Oh, yes, do go find a plant or some seeds. It's worth a try. We have had a terrible time with the slugs here in Maine this year. The rain has been relentless. It's all I can do to save the odd bean sprout. Hang in there...
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