I’ve just been planting out spring cabbage for overwintering and an expected harvest in early spring next year. As usual I planned to space them at about 14″ apart and this is what almost every book, seed packet and guide says – but reading the RHS Vegetable Growing book recently I came across this direction for spacing spring cabbage:

10cm (4in) initially for spring cabbages, then thin out in late February/March to 30cm (1ft), using the thinnings as spring greens.

I’ve not done this before – so this year I’m trying it both ways to see which works best. The variety is ‘Winter Green’ planted out mid-September with two different spacings – 6″ and 14″. You can just see the difference in spacing in the photo despite the netting which is of course to deter the constant menace of pigeons. Let’s see how they get on