RED CABBAGE: This week Dirty Nails has been sowing Red Drumhead cabbages.

He favours starting them off in small pots of compost in the greenhouse but a finely raked seedbed outdoors is ideal too. He uses tweezers to pop the pinhead-sized, maroon-grey seeds in to a depth of ½ an inch (1½ cm), and keeps them warm and moist. When the seedlings are little more than 2 inches (5 cm) tall, they will be transplanted into bigger pots and placed outside.

If sown outdoors, seedlings should be thinned to allow 2 inches (5 cm) between plants before they are touching.

Potted-on, Red Drumhead should suffer no ill-effects as long as the compost is kept moist and the roots are not constricted in their container.

In four or five weeks, when the seedlings are about 6 inches (15 cm) in height, Dirty Nails will get them out into the veg plot.

Direct sowings are best planted out into their final resting places at this stage too.

A site enriched for a previous crop is ideal, as these are hungry cabbages. Red Drumhead after broad beans is a good idea, because the recently harvested bean haulms (tops) can simply be cut off at soil level and there is no need to turn the ground over.

The nitrogen goodness in bean root nodules will be slow-released as they rot. Brassicas appreciate this.

All the cabbage tribe like to be planted out firm and deep. A trowel is used to dig planting holes allowing 2 feet (60 cm) each way. These will be filled with water and allowed to drain.

After carefully planting the young beauties, and ensuring that there is no bare stem visible above the soil, Dirty Nails gently firms-in with the heel of his boot.

A horticultural fleece can be pegged over the cabbage patch at this time to keep white butterflies and other pests at bay.

Red Drumhead requires little else apart from being kept moist and free of weeds. Fleece can be removed come autumn when the weather cools, and the heads cut in wintertime.

If they are being saved as a standing crop until spring, then a thick mulch of well-rotted manure can be applied around the stem bottom for nourishment after New Year.

This is a crisp and sweet red cabbage, traditionally pickled. It is also fabulous when steamed for a hot dish but Dirty Nails grows it to make a quick and easy salad which all the family adore.

A fat head is shredded with a sharp knife and into the mix is tossed raisins, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and seasoning to taste.

EXTRACTS FROM DIRTY NAILS’ JOURNAL WATCHING A DROWNING BEE RECOVER: “Honey bees are inspiring insects. Half an hour ago one floated, spread-eagled and barely alive in a bucket of urine by the compost heap (collected for nightly spraying round the veggies to try and keep the badgers from excessive digging).

"I fished the bee out with a twig and alighted the sorry fellow on the pallet edge of the compost in the sun then went down to my allotment to harvest broad beans, baby marrows and globe artichokes.

"On returning, I went to check on the bee. It was in the process of transforming itself from a sodden and unmoving article the size of my thumbnail into an amazing flying creature.

“Every now and then fending off black ants, the bee bucks and writhes, abdomen pulsating slightly all the while as legs are contorted at unlikely angles and the filth is combed away.

"The bee’s body is dry and lightly furred once more. Its two black antennae feel gingerly in front of two huge multiple eyes. Bee crawls along the wood. With every burst of cleaning and drying effort it appears more healthy and active.

"Wings are still folded along its back until, as I look closely at my invertebrate friend and study it with wonder, they open and the bee has lift-off. It crash-lands next to my forearm.

"Seconds later, as the blazing sun yawns wide and hot from behind a massed bank of white and grey cloud, bee takes off again. This time, unfalteringly, the little worker buzzes off into the depths of Mrs Nails’ flower garden.”

JOBS TO DO IN THE GREENHOUSE: Check over for signs of pests and disease.

Water crops daily.

Cut off discoloured lower leaves from tomato plants.

Sow Red Drumhead and Pyramid F1 cabbage, Marathon F1 calabrese.

On the plot Water cucumbers, sunflowers, runner beans, beetroot, squashes, kale and cabbages.

Hoe through the cabbage patch.

Water tomatoes in containers daily.

Hand weed asparagus bed.

Weed close-in amongst climbing French beans.

Clear ground for the receipt of maincrop leeks, and dibble these in.

Snip tops off Witkiem broad beans to discourage blackfly. If these tender bits are clean, steam for delicious greens.

Water newly planted leeks daily by ‘puddling in’.

Thin carrots.

JUNE VEG ON THE MENU: Leaves and greens
Beetroot leaves (as spinach)
Leaf beet
Lovage
Stinging nettle
Sow thistle
Swiss chard Roots, tubers and stems
Asparagus (mature bed only)
Beetroot Carrot
thinning Kohl rabi
Radish Salads
Florence fennel thinning
Lettuce
Anouk Lettuce thinnings
Rocket Spuds
First Early Concorde
Onion tribe
Chives
Radar onion
Red Baron onion
Spring onions
Edible flowers
Globe artichoke
Salsify Beans and peas
Broad bean
Aquadulce
Fruits
Alpine strawberry
Strawberry
F1 A Vegetable Gardener's Year by Dirty Nails (ISBN 9781905862221) is available from www.dirtynails.co.uk or good bookshops, rrp £12.99