Classic Gardening Magazine
Gardening as it ought to be
How to get fresh leaf salad all winter long
Ok, we know it's not actually spring, but after a summer that didn't deserve the name we find ourselves with a few sunny days.
So let's say it's spring, and see if we can't make up for the lousy summer by working on having the most productive winter we can.
Of course we'll need protection, hence the easily mocked (thanks kids) tent that's sprung up on the vegetable patch.
I fully intend to stick another one behind it, although I have been told in no uncertain terms that this is not acceptable.
The tent might be ugly, but it should allow us to have salad all winter.
Here is a combination of crops that will give you just that
December and January
MIZUNA
A mild mustard flavour, fast growign with hight heads of serrated leaves
December to March
WILD ROCKET
Grow it once, grow it forever. Keep cutting the leaves when young and you can stave off flowering until early spring. Once it does flower it sets seed easily. Intense peppery flavour.
Jan to March
CORN SALAD
You might know it as Lamb's Lettuce. It doesn't have a great taste but it has juicy leaves that freshen up and bulks out winter salads.
Jan to Feb
SPINACH
Mild pleasant flavour
Sow in September and October and cut the baby leaves for salad, grow them on for steaming or stir-frying.
March to April
RADICCHIO
Beautifully bitter. Use the baby leaves, or wait for heads to appear in April
March to May
ENDIVE
Slightly bitter
... or go for a general baby leaf salad such as Thomson and Morgans, with spinach, mizuna and red mustard. Sow a patch fairly densely. It will crop after 30-odd days, and if you mow the baby leaves regularly you;ll have crops all winter.
This frame, by the way, is A Nortene Cloche, which measures .9m high, 1.48m wide and 1.8m long. It cost about 20 quid
Ok, we know it's not actually spring, but after a summer that didn't deserve the name we find ourselves with a few sunny days.
So let's say it's spring, and see if we can't make up for the lousy summer by working on having the most productive winter we can.
Of course we'll need protection, hence the easily mocked (thanks kids) tent that's sprung up on the vegetable patch.
I fully intend to stick another one behind it, although I have been told in no uncertain terms that this is not acceptable.
The tent might be ugly, but it should allow us to have salad all winter.
Here is a combination of crops that will give you just that
December and JanuaryMIZUNA
A mild mustard flavour, fast growign with hight heads of serrated leaves
December to March
WILD ROCKET
Grow it once, grow it forever. Keep cutting the leaves when young and you can stave off flowering until early spring. Once it does flower it sets seed easily. Intense peppery flavour.
Jan to March
CORN SALAD
You might know it as Lamb's Lettuce. It doesn't have a great taste but it has juicy leaves that freshen up and bulks out winter salads.
Jan to Feb
SPINACH
Mild pleasant flavour
Sow in September and October and cut the baby leaves for salad, grow them on for steaming or stir-frying.
March to AprilRADICCHIO
Beautifully bitter. Use the baby leaves, or wait for heads to appear in April
March to May
ENDIVE
Slightly bitter
... or go for a general baby leaf salad such as Thomson and Morgans, with spinach, mizuna and red mustard. Sow a patch fairly densely. It will crop after 30-odd days, and if you mow the baby leaves regularly you;ll have crops all winter.
This frame, by the way, is A Nortene Cloche, which measures .9m high, 1.48m wide and 1.8m long. It cost about 20 quid