Fall Salad Greens

[mdvpc]

I cannot grow salad greens in the summer here because of the hot temps. I start mine around Sept 15 or so and then grow them outside and some in the greenhouse all winter. Heres some of mine-from left to right-Little Gem, Barba di Frati and Sylveta Arugula.

[Mantis]

They look great Michael. You must have very hot summers eh

[mdvpc]

Mantis-We have high sustained temperatures of greater than 90 degrees F, 32 C, for 4 months or so-and the sun just cooks the greens. I tried this summer putting some salad greens in the shade and nursing them along-with the heat and then the aphids, it was a disaster. But when fall comes along, the greens do very well, and since our winters are mild enough, I have greens from September to May. One of them in the photo, Barba di Frati, is a particularly nice salad green.

[gardenhappy]

Hi, where do you get your seeds?? I have not heard of type you said was so nice would love to try it!! We ahve the same problem here in Lithia Florida,seeds cook in the ground,we are still in the low 80's even now.

[Tania]

Michael,
your salad greens look absolutely delicious - just seeing your pictures makes me want to go outside and pick some frozed arugula from the garden (Bad idea, as we had 2 days with temps below freezing at night, I think there is still some frost on the ground now)

I am dreaming about starting my winter garden on the windowsill in the kitchen, once I receive my seed order from Pinetree (they have some awesome greens and lettuces there, so I order from them every second year). Perhaps I'd go and start some radish/arugula sprouts while waiting. These are delicious addition to any salad .

[PNW_D]

Hmm, thought I'd check out my arugula ... not too bad - and a slight dusting of snow this a.m.

and some mixed greens, radicchio, turnip top, mixed lettuce, kale (and a few weeds for good measure) ...

[Tania]

D. - yours are looking good! We have frost on the ground here up in the mountains . I will check my arugula later today, it should unfreeze.

[feldon30]

I've tried to grow lettuce/greens in the summer in Houston. It's difficult or impossible.

[Earl]

I've still got some endive, red/green sorrel, and frizee in the greenhouse, in earth boxes, that I moved in from outside. Along with a lot of herbs. Not well organized this winter, but will be next time by planting seeds so plants are mature when the cold arrives and they'll stay harvestible over winter. Checking catalogs for cold hardy greens now. Temp only hit 22 here so far.

Oh yeah, I put single layer of bales of hay/straw around the outside of greenhouse as insulation and it seems to work so far.

[mdvpc]

Earl-the one green that I know is very cold hardy is Valeriana-aka Mache aka Corn Salad. Seeds from Italy is where I get mine and they are great.

Feldon, are you growing salad greens, Kale, Chard, etc now?

Tania-My recollection is you have a cold frame, right? Wonder if you could germinate a flat of arugula, valeriana, etc inside and then plant out in your coldframe along with radishes, etc?

PNW-We had a freak snowfall a few days ago-it fell fast, and I just let the snow cover and protect my greens. When it melted 2 days later, everything was fine.

GardenHappy-I get most of my salad greens and things like kale, chard, spinach, radishes, etc from Seeds from Italy and some from SSE public catalog.

[johno]

What holds up the best to frost here (zone 6) is turnip greens and collard greens, followed by Swiss Chard.

[Patapsco Mike]

Here's my Z7 garden as of two weeks ago (and many a good frost). Left to right- carrots/parsnips, broccoli (back) mache/carrots/parsnips (front), red russian kale, mache. Son Nicholas in back for scale. I will pick the mache all winter long, though of course it grows very slowly.

[mdvpc]

Mike-looks great! mache does grow slowly, but when its picked its wonderful. Nice photo.