Wet and dry gardening

I have been harvesting cabbage since my return -- and it finally dawned on me that I was seeing something pretty special.  I bought a six-pack of cabbage starts at Seattle Tilth's spring sale.  The ones that didn't fit in my raised bed I added to my ornamental bed in the front yard.

The difference between my raised bed and my ornamental bed is water.  The ornamentals get none -- I designed it to be drought tolerant and haven't watered it since the first year it was planted.  The difference between the cabbages is visually clear.  The well-watered raised bed cabbage is smooth.

The un-watered ornamental bed cabbage is heavily "savoyed." 

If you click the savoyed cabbage image to get the larger one, you can see why.  The wrinkles and crinkles catch water and hold it (sometimes all day.)  The watered cabbage doesn't need wrinkles because it gets what it needs from the soil.

the miracle of cabbage

My cabbage has been growing and growing -- dominating more than its alotted square foot in my raised bed -- but it hasn't been looking like cabbage.  I was wondering if maybe I planted a non-heading variety.  And then I happened upon a post over at Modern Victory Garden that said her savoyed cabbage has large exterior whorl leaves that are just turning inward to become heads. 

And I thought two things: "I didn't plant the wrong type of cabbage" and "I have savoyed cabbage."  Well, one out of two isn't bad ... I planted the right cabbage but it isn't savoyed.  Apparently savoyed refers to the crinkled leaves found on winter cabbages.

I looked up my seeds online.  My parel cabbages have blue green wrapper leaves (check) that protect the white-leaved head core (not yet.)  My cabbages are growing slowly -- as I am pretty sure they are getting close to the 50 days advertised on the packet.  Maybe it is the cool weather.

Or maybe it is my spacing.  When I read that they produced 6 inch heads I thought: "I can put 4 in a square foot."  I knew nothing of wrapper leaves or how a cabbage grows.  I think in the future I will give my 6 inch cabbage a full foot to grow in.  Right now three are duking it out for growing rights -- and the nearby marigolds, beets, and spinach are trying not to be overwhelmed.