The story of broccoli

Early Aprl: Seedlings

Late April: Growing up!

May 15: Planting out

May 30: Explosive growth

Early June: a curd appears ...

 

... and the neighbours are eaten!

Mid-June: Obvious curd is obvious ...

... and the plant is about a foot tall

A week later, and the curd is ping-pong ball sized

June 22: Baseball-sized. Probably should have harvested at this point

June 25: Whoops! Flower buds haven't opened yet ...

... but the plant is obviously bolting

July 1: Canada Day fireworks

July 4: Flower buds continue to open

All sorts of pollinators visit. The smaller ones are easier to photograph ...

... but I spend a couple of days chasing down a pic of the big fat camera-shy bumbles

The haze of pollinators around the broccoli flowers and the flowers themselves are happy-making ...

... but the plant is taking up valuable real estate from the fall crop of carrots and beets. Buh bye!

Overall, growing broccoli was fun but, except for the petite Purple Peacock variety that you see in the last picture, not practical for a balcony garden situation. I'm more than willing to swap the remaining seeds (they're the Di Cicco variety, from Sage Garden Herbs) for more space-efficient veggies (leafy greens like guy lan or root plants like small carrots, beets, radishes).