Cauliflower is a vegetable that grows better in cooler-seasons, they are mostly available in the spring and autumn. It’s not the easiest vegetable to grow for the beginner as it’s pretty fussy.

The soil for cauliflowers needs to have plenty of organic matter dug into the soil, like aged manure or well-rotted compost, as this helps hold the moisture in the soil.

You can usually buy plants in your local nursery or garden centre. This way is a much quicker way of starting the plants. But you can sow the cauliflower seeds in compost about a month before the last frost, keep the compost watered, and once the plants are big enough…transplant them into the garden.

The plants should be around 16” apart, and you need to water regularly… especially if the weather is dry. You can also mulch around the plants to conserve moisture in the soil. Caulies also need fertilizer whilst they are growing, feed them with a high nitrogen fertilizer

Cauliflowers also need protecting from frost, you can use some garden fleece to cover them.

Cauliflowers are disturbed in their growth by things such as watering, not the right nutrition, or the weather, the cauliflower may suddenly develop a ‘head’ – but often these are much smaller than the shop-bought ones. They will still be tasty but many gardeners don’t like it.

Cauliflower always starts out with a loose head and it takes time for the cauli head to form fully. Many cauliflower varieties take around 80days from transplant them so you need to be patient.

When the head is around 3” around then you want to blanch the head, you do this by tying the other leaves over the head and secure them with some string, twine or a rubber band. This keeps the light out and will make the head white. There are self-blanching varieties and that means you don’t have to do this. Also for the coloured varieties you don’t have to do this.

Cauliflowers are usually white but also some come in other colours such as yellow, purple, and orange.

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