Featured Recipes: • Cold Broccoli Salad Gardening Tips: A New Use for Old Leaves Brassicas such as broccoli, Brussels Sprouts and cabbage benefit from a nitrogen boost. An excellent way to provide this--and trace minerals as well--is to till or fork some autumn leaves into the bed, the fall before planting. If the leaves have been composted for a year or two, so much the better. A Swish in Time The little green worms on your broccoli are harmless--but not the most appetizing garnish. After picking, soak the heads for 10 minutes in a sink full of heavily salted water, then swish the broccoli before removing it. The worms, killed by the salt, will fall to the bottom. Let it Bloom Nothing goes to seed quite as relentlessly as broccoli. You are, after all, growing heads of tasty green buds, and a bud is determined to become a flower unless cool weather slows it down. One tries to keep up with the harvesting—to encourage the production of new bud-laden shoots—and to snip off flowering stalks promptly. After a certain point, the edible stalks diminish and soon the plant is a riot of yellow blooms. Tidy gardeners then rip the plants out and compost them. I like to leave some for the bees, who are grateful for this superior nectar source.