“Herleqiun Shake – Curly Kale” – Summer 2013 – Hamnett Place Community Garden – Wilkinsburg, PA – Harlequin Bug shaking its ass on a stunning Kale leaf… Shake that Brassica… Oleracea…
A Plant a Day till Spring” will highlight one plant a day, starting on the winter solstice (December 21, 2013)… And ending on the vernal equinox (March 20, 2014)… If all goes to plan I will be starting with old Snowdrop photos from 2013… And ending with new photos of Snowdrops in 2014…
6 Days to Go
I was first introduced to Kale in the form of a gifted plant… I had no idea what it was… And I had never eaten it before… So I grew it… In fact… I ended up growing lots of it… But I never really tried to eat it… Enough people around me liked it so I basically just gave it all away… That lasted up till two years ago… Simply out of curiosity I steamed some up… Sautéed it with roasted red peppers and onions… And fell in love… This year I plan on growing more than last year…
Kale has a tendency to get buggy… We are not the only creatures that find its leaves delectable… But given the fact that it is the leaves we eat… Spraying with any kind of pesticide… Organic or chemical… Is kind of a gamble… There is no silver bullet to the insect problem… I would recommend diversity as the most organic solution… Flowering plants attract predators… The type of predators they attract are not just based on the type of flowers you plant… But are based on the flowers coupled with the food source available… In this case… Kale and its associated pests…
Although diversity does not mean pest attacks will stop… It does mean your garden will be more biologically prepared to defend itself than if you had only planted Kale… A garden is a system… A system that requires many different parts… When one of those parts gets broken or eliminated the other parts wear faster and fail… It is our jobs as permaculturists to figure out what those parts are and maintain the hell out of them… When we find a missing part… We replace it… In the case of our kale… When a pest is identified we should immediately hit the books… Every pest has a predator… Every predator is attracted to something… Figure out what that something is and plant the hell out of it…
Windcrest Farms Companion Plant List – One of the better lists available…
plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello
If you want some science – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale
These “Plant a Day Till Spring” posts are simply intended to kill time until spring when I start writing more… My source (where applicable) is Wikipedia.org… The photography is all my own… And I am adding my own information…
This website and all of the information presented within is provided free by the author… Me… It is my sole opinion and is not representative of anyone other than myself… You can contact me directly with questions at – c.condello@hotmail.com
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chriscondello 
thanks for the link to the beneficials, I always like to have more of these resources, and that is a very good one, indeed.
I am busy trying to trade or just scrounge up whatever free (old seeds) bene’s I can to mate with my brassicas and solanacaes for this year.
btw, kale is awesome raw too 🙂 I actually like having a bonanza of some raw and some sauteed, served with a cornucopia of of greens and rice. Best results come with kale and many other yummy leafy greens (arugula and chard and heading and asian cabbages), and avocados, peppers and chiles, tomatoes, etc. paired with olive oil, a.c. vinegar, salt pepper and lots of fresh herbs like parsleys and cilantro. ymmv.
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Makin my mouth water…. And all I have at the moment are 1″ seedlings…
Thanks for the food tip…
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I don’t even have any germinated yet. I have a few in coir, but sadly cramped for limited window space till it warms a bit.
what types of kale are you doing? I will be doing Lacto/ Dino, a black Kale, and Red Russian (Rugged Jack), the last of which I think is not a true Kale, but soo good, and pretty cold hardy (NB, little purple worms the same shade of lavendar as the leaves like to much on it too). I have found cuttings/clones of Kale winters inside pretty easily, as do most brassicas. It grows inside a lot more slowly than, say pak choi, but isn’t too bad.
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Thanks for the companion link.
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Nice blog on plants.
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