Broccoli Romanesco

Despite fearing the cold nights, yesterday evening I planted out my first seedlings: Broccoli Romanesco; 12 tiny plants, 60cm apart. It's hard to imagine that they'll grow into spiralling shells of lime-green cauliflower, but I hope they do.

To protect them from the cold and bitter wind I covered them with some home-made cloches, assembled from kinked wire and the thinnest tomato-plant fleece. They lay flimsy, white and spectral on the dark freshly turned soil; tiny arrows of golden sunlight shot through the cloth, luminous in the greying evening air, like sparks falling, then fading, on camp-fire cinders.