Advice on getting the best from cabbages

A garden and greenhouse expert has given food growers advice on how to get the best out of their cabbages.

Huddersfield Examiner contributor Graham Porter explained that one of the more important things to do for the vegetables is to protect them from pests.

A common blight on cabbages is the Cabbage White butterfly caterpillar, which can cause serious damage to crops.

However, a simple covering of fleece should help keep the critters away from your precious foodstuff, while still allowing them to grow.

Horticulture enthusiasts may also wish to give their cabbages a nutritional boost by feeding them with a high-nitrogen product such as diluted sulphate of ammonia.

This will help "green up the leaves and give the plants the energy to fill out a little more", according to the newspaper.

Mr Porter also explained that the best way to ensure a solid crop from apple trees is to prune them in late summer and winter, provide them with a compatible pollinating partner tree and ensure they are well fed and irrigated.

Meanwhile, Hartley Botanic is pleased to reveal that it is set to continue to publish the advice of garden and greenhouse expert Jean Vernon.