Winter Greens Tips

What are the best greens to be sowing in autumn and winter?

All are great, but darkest green varieties have the highest nutritional value!

All Mesclun Blends:

• Direct sow as opposed to transplant
• Sprinkle in rows
• Successive sowing for continuous supply

NB: Mesclun Winter Greens is a blend of Minutina (feathery leaf) and Arugula (scalloped leaf) which are both spicy and nutty in flavour and Miners Lettuce (rounded leaf) which is more mild.

• All perennial European varieties which grow in the wild
• Prefer cooler climates and will grow in the shade
• Very tiny seed goes a long way

Asian Brassica types:
Misome, Mibuna and Mizuna – all fast-growing and can be eaten raw in salads or sautéed or stir-fried.

Mustards

• “hot” ones like Giant Red
• “milder” ones are Mustard Streaks and Komatsuna Mustard Spinach
• All more mild at the baby leaf stage

European Brassica types:

Kale: intensifies in colour with the cold. The darker they are, the more nutritious they become.

• Blue Ridge F1 – large plants, sow a metre apart
• Cavolo Nero (Italian for Cabbage Black)
• Dazzling Blue
• Red Russian – different leaf type to the others
• Scarlet
• Squire – standard Vates Blue type
• Ursa

Other Greens:
Spinach for Baby Leaf (more rounded leaf) – Medley, Santana, Winter Giant

Spinach for Bunching (Asian pointed leaf style) – Summer Green F1 and Upright F1

Other Spinach (not suitable for cooler temps) – NZ Spinach (high in Vitamin C), Malabar Spinach, Strawberry Spinach (more a novelty variety).

Corn Salad – harvest with the roots on, will be sweeter in the cooler months.

Lettuce – less bitter in the cooler months.

Rocket and Arugula

Beets

Tops of Root Crops – pick the tender young leaves of the following root crops for tasty greens – Radish, Beetroot, Turnip, Carrot.