While most of the plants on this list can be used in salads, some such as spinach and kale could be described as dual purpose in that the young leaves can be eaten fresh and the mature plant can be cooked as a vegetable. The important point is that they can all be planted at this season to provide food into the winter in suitable conditions. These ten edible greens are described in an article by Lauren Dunec Hoang which I found on the Houzz website.
In most climates, leafy greens such as lettuces, arugula, spinach, chard and mustard greens grow best planted in late summer or early spring, where the plants thrive in the warm daytime temperatures and cool nighttime ones. In mild-winter areas, or with the help of cold frames and frost blankets, you can grow these crops throughout winter.
Inspired to try growing edible greens this fall?? To get started, use this guide to select the mix that best suits your taste.Choosing your greens. When choosing varieties to grow, you?ll want to consider how you?d like to use the greens (in salads, cooked dishes or both) as well as your available space for planting.
In your first year, you may want to plant a wide variety of greens to identify your favorites.1. Lettuces
To create an interesting mix in the garden and on the plate, choose plants with a variety of leaf shapes, colors and textures. Head-forming lettuces, such as romaine, butterhead and iceberg, are great for adding crunch to salads and should be harvested once the heads begin to form.
Loose-leaf lettuces, like ?Oak Leaf? and ?Salad Bowl?, have a looser form and can be grown tightly spaced ? great for a container or packing into a bed. Harvest loose-leaf lettuces when the leaves are young and tender for an at-home equivalent of the grocery store mesclun mix. Lettuces are all frost-tender and need to be either picked or protected with a frost blanket if night frost is predicted.
Great for: Salads, sandwiches, lettuce wraps, grilling. Example: romaine.
Water requirement: Regular; keep the soil moist
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade. Partial shade is best in hot climates and to prevent bolting.2. Endive and Escarole
These slightly bitter salad greens, classified as a type of chicory, lend a savory flavor to salads and soups. Not all endives and escaroles are as bitter as the ones you may have tried from the market; varieties like ?Sugarloaf? taste more like romaine. For the pungent varieties, like curly endive, also called frisee, leaves harvested when young are less bitter, and adding leaves of any maturity to soup makes them taste very mild. You can harvest the leaves using the ?cut and come again? method by cutting the whole plant down to about an inch; it will regrow in a few weeks.
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