Purple sprouting broccoli

This is my first year growing broccoli and I have no idea when or how to harvest it! Purple spears have appeared at the top and sides of most of the plants - what do I do next?
Also, I have had some garlic in a bed since October - one type said harvest in Spring and the other in Autumn. The spring variety has started to yellow on the leaves - does this mean that it is ready to be harvested?
Thanks in advance guys - this forum is a million times better than any gardening book that I own!

 

Hi Sterile,

You've done well there, mine is yet to get away. Pick them as soon as they look big enough to eat & before the flowers start to open.

Once they start producing, keep cutting as they will keep trying to flower. To freeze them, blanch them in boiling water with a bit of citric acid added, for 2 minutes, then open freeze them on a tray.

Put them in bags the next day, if you freeze them in bags straight away then you'll get a big solid lump of frozen broccoli, you wouldn' want that.

I dig my garlic before the leaves drop, otherwise they are hard to find. Just ripen them in the greenhouse or shed.

 

Keep cutting the broccoli as Ziggy says, before it starts to flower,
As the weather warms you need to keep on top of it.

As to garlic, its my first year this year, never liked the stuff until now, but I've not come across a harvest in spring type.
I've seen plant in spring and plant in autumn but I assume both kinds are ready for harvest in late summer.

 

Good advice coming regards broccoli, I'm sowing some today for the first time. As for garlic, this is my first attempt and so far it looks to be going ok. My boss (a beginner too, but with more cash to splash) went to a garden centre and got some bulbs, he gave me two, one of which I split and planted in two large pots. Just seen good signs of growth today, so fingers crossed.

Is there any special time for broccoli? I read you can plant it anytime in the year but this doesn't seem to be true with the instructions on the seed packets? Advice would be appreciated, the wife and grandkids thrive on the stuff.

Gerard

 

Summer and Winter (which is actually Spring).

I've stopped growing the Summer Sprouting (sow Mar-Jun) - it comes at a time when we have plenty of veg, and I think of Sprouting Broccoli as a Winter veg - of course if Sprouting Broccoli is your favourite veg that condition doesn't apply!

I plant a super-early (sow Apr-May) and an early !! variety (sow May-Jun) for the following Spring. I have never seen a "Late" variety, so I suppose the names are just variations on a theme. This year its a bit of a disaster as the winter was so cold, and the plants are a bit of a slimy mess. Normally its the veg that fills the "hungry gap" between Winter veg finishing, and the late Spring stuff being ready.