THERE was a time when the growing of cabbage was very much a seasonal affair. There were four basic types, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and the times for sowing the seed were equally clearly defined.

Nowadays, it seems, you can sow, grow, and eat spring cabbage at any time of the year and the supermarkets probably sell as much winter cabbage in August as in December. And as for summer and autumn cabbages, well, to most people they are probably just ordinary cabbages.

For years I stuck to the tradition of growing spring greens with two sowings, in August and September, born of the old belief that should one lot fail, the others would take but trouble never seemed to arise, the result being a surfeit of seedlings which turned into a surfeit of cabbages in the spring.

Lots of gardeners still do this and if you pick up the popular mail order catalogues or browse through the seed racks at the local garden centre you will find a lot of famous old names like Wheelers Imperial, Durham Early, Early Queen, Offenham, Pixie, April, Flower of Spring, and others that date back to Grandpa's day. Take your pick because they will all produce the traditional point-headed spring cabbage.

Nowadays there are some remarkable new varieties available. The autumn catalogue from veggie specialists Marshalls Seeds, for instance, offers a new F1 hybrid called Excel, bred for early July sowing and cropping in autumn. Vanguard and Mastergreen are similar types, sown where they are to mature and ready in October. You may have missed the earliest sowings but sowing now will keep the crops going through Christmas and on to early summer.

Spring 401 is another newcomer, extremely hardy and maturing slowly with the result that large heads develop and will stand ready over a long period.

If you fancy spring cabbage that turns into summer cabbage, look especially for the variety Spring Hero, which has been one of my favourites since it was introduced quite a few years ago as the first ball-headed spring cabbage.

This variety will stand even the worst wintry weather to produce a good crop of greens and if you leave a few to grow on they produce heads weighing a couple of pounds or more. The cabbage is tender and the flavour good.

This could be the year to experiment with a number of varieties, old and new. This doesn't necessarily mean additional expense in buying seed that will be wasted. Cabbage seed these days is very reliable and it has a long life so by sowing sparingly and saving the rest of a packet for next year and quite a few years after that, you can try out new varieties alongside some of the old favourites for purposes of comparison. Many are the times when I have sown a little seed from five or six different packets.

Whatever variety you choose and whenever you sow it, young plants intended for transplanting will be ready to move when the seedlings have four or five leaves. One useful hint is to space plants from two sowings alternately, six to nine inches apart, so that the older plants will grow quickly and can be cropped early leaving smaller plants to grow on. Successional planting, if you like.

All cabbages like deeply dug soil, slightly alkaline, so lime will be necessary in acid soil conditions. Avoid the temptation to feed autumn planted cabbage with high nitrogen fertiliser in the belief that it will speed up early growth for it does no more than encourage the kind of lush growth that may succumb to frost.

The time to feed is in early spring after the rigours of winter