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Cabbage Brunswick is a fine flavoured, popular old variety. Cold hardy and drought tolerant It can be sown early and grown to huge proportions but is more usually sown in March to May for harvesting August to October. Used in soups or stews, made into sauerkraut or coleslaw.

Not all cabbages have the round shape that we usually find on the market. Cuor di Bue Grosso, literally translated means ‘Large Heart of the Ox’, a cultivar with a beautiful conical shape, large, firm, pointed hearts and sweet compact heart, and looking at its glorious shape ‘Ox Heart’ is the perfect name for it

Probably one of the most well known and reliable spring cabbages, Cabbage Durham Early produces dark green, medium-sized conical heads with good texture and tasty flavour. You can start harvesting particularly early in the season, and for delicious tender 'spring greens'.

A traditional autumn maturity variety, Cabbage ‘Glory of Enkhuizen’ is an excellent variety that was originally bred in 1899. The medium-large, hard round heads are light green in colour, used in slaws, salads, soups and stir fries, it is a good keeper, ideal for storage, and for kraut.

Golden Acre is an excellent early summer variety ball head cabbage. With small to medium-sized green solid heads on compact plants. Ideal for confined areas, it can be grown at 30cm spacings. This heritage variety gives excellent small heads of first rate quality and flavour.

Savoy cabbage ‘Ormskirk’ is a very old heritage variety, it gives a fine head of cabbage, solid in the centre with deep blue-green outer crinkly leaves and a pale green centre. It matures from November and can be harvested through to March and beyond.

Cabbage ‘Red Drumhead’ is a popular deep red heirloom variety which produces densely packed leafy heads with dark red, solid hearts in late summer through to Christmas. This old hardy variety from the 1860s is easy to grow, stores well and is remarkably tasty and sweet.

Cabbage 'Violaceo di Verona' is a winter Savoy cabbage from Northern Italy. A cross between a savoy and a white cabbage, with dark green and violet leaves. Frost hardy and and long standing it can be harvested from July until mid-winter with successional sowings.

Cabbage ‘Wheelers Imperial’ is a traditional heritage variety that produces solidly pointed layers of dark green leaves which form compact, heart shaped heads. Although a Victorian variety, it remains one of the best varieties for autumn sowing to stand the winter for harvesting in spring.

Cheerful and bright, use Calendula in beds, borders or containers. Calendula is prolific and durable, and like most hardy annuals it is easy to grow, simply sow where it is to flower. It is currently one of the top herbs used for medicinal use. Sprinkle salads and decorate cakes with the edible tangy petals.

Calendula officinalis 'Neon' is a true showstopper. The densely set, double flowers glow with deep orange petals each with bronze tips. Growing to a height of around 60 to 70cm they are the essence of early summer colour in the garden and make a stunning cut flower.

Caraway is an incredibly useful plant. The seeds are used as a culinary spice and for medicinal purposes, the leaves can be eaten in salads and the roots cooked as a root vegetable. With feathery, delicate foliage the plant is lovely in the garden border and is a very useful companion plant in the vegetable garden.

Amomum subulatum the cardamon or cardamom plant is native to damp, forested valleys from the eastern Himalayas to central China. It won't yield enough pods for a bountiful crop of the spice, but makes an interesting conversation piece and a satisfying challenge for the adventurous gardener.