Red Russian kale

Brassica always present two problems: whitefly and pigeons

As an organic gardener, I tend to ignore whitefly (I read in a Monty book that underplanting brassica with thyme works as a repellent, must try next year).

Pigeons, on the other hand, are more difficult to ignore as they can reduce brocoli and kale to a sorry stem practically overnight.

This year, I was determined to try methods that don't involve caging plants. I once read that if you 'hide' brassica among flowers pigeons have a harder time finding it. And it seemed to have worked with this plant (I had also put branches around it to stop the deers from nibbling the young leaves).