Weekly Garden Thread - April 9-15, 2022 [Lettuces & Salad Greens Edition]

April 9, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memorium

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[KC Burke]

“flows” should have read “folds”

spell check is so annoying

[Augie]

I love morel season. Stomping the woods is a good way for this old fat man to work off a few of those winter pounds that he always gains.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks, Pete!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Interesting! I worked ‘in the biz’ for 18 years before retiring.

Please feel free to add whatever ‘insider baseball’ tips and tricks that you want to each week; we’d love to read them!

[metmom]

Nice.

I should get one.

My knees aren’t bad, per se, but I do feel them when I do too much. Something like that would be a big help.

[FamiliarFace]

Speaking of losing winter pounds, last March when there were some warm days here, I started walking in my neighborhood every few days. Then my husband decided to join me at the end of his work day. We’ve been walking together almost every day, even through most of the winter here. I draw my limit at days in the low teens. That’s too unpleasant even if you are bundled up. We use a stationary bike those days. Anyway, we’ve both lost 15 pounds, and this year, that winter weight never crept back on! I have always put on winter weight and take it off in the summer when I’m outside gardening, so this winter is a first!

Happy morel hunting!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

This season, Mother Nature is REALLY playing 'cat and mouse' with me. It's going to be one of those seasons where everything is frostbitten, and my tomatoes and peppers won't be going in until the END of May. I've been a little spoiled being retired and NOT working in a Garden Center in the INSANITY that is Spring. I never used to get the bulk of my OWN garden in until June, most of those years.

While the temps are going up and the night time temps aren't too awful, the lack of SUNSHINE is an issue for my unheated greenhouse. My tomatoes and peppers are up - tomatoes will need to be re-potted in another week or so, but it still might be too cold out there to move them out, so I'll have tomato plants all over the place in the house. In other words: Cat Bait! Grrrr! I haven't started flowers and basil and a few other things that should be started now, but I'll figure that out. Once the weather turns, it will be All Hands on Deck up here on The Frozen Tundra. Meh! It's always SOMETHING when it's garden related!

On a BRIGHTER NOTE - It's New Truck Day! Amanda's Mom & Step Dad just delivered my new-to-me Ford F-150 and it's just awesome! So, since I have a day of full sunshine, I'm going to move things from my SUV to the new truck (Her name is 'Shadow') and pick up fallen branches in the yard that have fallen over the course of winter, do some uncovering of stuff in the garden (asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, Tulip & Daff bulbs) and do some much needed puppy training that has been neglected a bit due to rain, snow and cold weather.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[LibWhacker]

The twisted branches of the camperdown elm

[Pollard]

Grrr. Something’s still eating my seedlings. Heading out now to see if I still have a bunch of chicken wire. I put the field fence around the front yard garden which should rule out rabbits. Got the hen cooped up which rules that out. Too cold for bugs. Could be chipmunks.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

How to Grow Salad Greens

If you’re used to eating boring iceberg lettuce salads that are covered in a flavorful dressing, fear not – there are plenty of more exciting and delicious salad greens to add to your garden!

Standard iceberg lettuce is great, but it’s even easier in many cases to grow other salad greens that are more nutritious and delicious. Adding some of these into your salad-making arsenal will go a long way for your health and your taste buds.

Here we go!​

Expanding your garden past lettuce is simple. Some of the following veggies can be eaten on their own – bok choy, arugula, and spinach are a few examples. Others, like radicchio, mustard greens, or chicory are best when mixed with other greens to create the perfect salad or dish.

Arugula

Arugular is known by many names, the most popular being rocket and roquette. It’s usually mixed into a salad with other greens due to its rich and spicy flavor.

Growing Tips

Sow seeds in early spring or fall
Thin seedlings to 4-6 inches apart, with 10 inches between rows
Don’t waste thinnings; use them in salads as baby greens
Harvest mature greens in 6-8 weeks
Bolts to seed fast in hot and dry weather

Bok choy (Brassica rapa)

Bok choy is another one of those veggies that goes by many names, the most common being bak choi and pak choi. It’s a cute relative to the cabbage with long, thick stems and dark green leaves. Baby bok choy plants are a staple in salads and cole slaws.

Growing Tips​

Sow seeds in early spring or fall
Grow like a cabbage
Prefers cooler growing conditions (use ‘Canton Bok’ if in a hotter region)
Place 8-12 inches apart, with 12 inches between rows
Harvest entire heads when small, or outer leaves when large

Endive and escarole (Cichorium endivia)

Endives have a light green, frilly leaves that are called frisee in the gardening and culinary worlds. The broader leaved varieties are typically called escarole. They have a bitter taste that can balance out a salad very well. Extremely popular in Europe due to this bitter taste adding some life to otherwise bland dishes.

Growing Tips​

Start indoors for an early summer harvest
Start in summer in the garden for a fall crop
Thin plants to 12 inches
Cooking tip – blanch plants for a buttery color and to cut some of the bitter flavor

Chicory (Cichorium intybus)

Chicory is a close relative of the endive and escarole. It’s known in some places as witloof chicory, or Belgian endive. It is a great addition to winter salad gardens if it is forced indoors.

Kale (Brassica oleracea)

Kale is one of the most popular salad and juicing greens in recent years – and for good reason. It’s extremely nutritious and comes in a large range of colors and styles, from purple to green, and from curly to straight.

Growing Tips​

Plant in early spring or late summer
Thin to 2 feet apart
Continually harvest by pulling younger leaves for salads

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Spinach is a salad staple and can be harvested when leaves are just developing for a baby spinach salad, or when mature for larger leaves. It’s one of the best greens to add to a salad for nutrition, as it’s packed with vitamins and minerals.

Growing Tips​

Plant in early spring and later summer
Thin to 4 to 6 inches apart
Do not waste thinnings – use them in salads or other dishes

Mizuna (Brassica juncea var. japonica)

This awesome and cabbage-tasting green is a very fast producer, maturing in a little over a month. It has serrated leaves and is a great minor addition in salads for a little kick.

Grow it like spinach.​

Mustard greens (Brassica juncea)

Mustard greens come in all sorts of varieties from red to green, and loose-leaf to headed. Loose-leaf types mature in 45 days and heading types mature in 60-75 days.

All varieties perform well in heat and a light frost, making them easy to grow.

As far as taste, the oriental cultivars are milder, while southern mustard greens have a hot and peppery flavor to them.​

Plant directly into the soil in early spring and fall
Do not cover with much soil
Space 6 inches apart and thin to 10 inches
Leave 12 inches in between rows

Radicchio (Cichoria intybus)

Radicchio is quickly becoming a staple in many salad-lovers’ gardens. It has an amazing visual appeal, with a white base flowing into deep purple leaves. The flavor is cherished in salads that would otherwise be a little bland.

Start indoors like endives and escarole
Transplant into garden 6 inches apart
Plants are ready to harvest when heads are compact and around 4 inches large

Salad Green Growing Guidelines

These 9 salad greens are similar to lettuce in how they grow. They prefer soil rich in humus that is moist, but drains well.

They all tend to do well in cooler weather, as hotter weather encourages these plants to bolt to seed or develop a flavor that is simply too strong for most people’s tastes.​

If you want to grow absolutely gorgeous salad greens – and who doesn’t – then, cover your rows or beds with a floating cover and leave it in place throughout the entire life of the crop. It seems weird, but it will help your greens stay tender and retain a vibrant color. Only remove the cover to weed or pick off any slugs that you see on your crops.​

When seedlings have four true leaves, thin to around 6 inches apart. As far as watering goes, about an inch a week is a good target. Be sure to water in the morning sun so leaves are dry by the time the sun sets.

If you decide now to use a cover, be sure to mulch so the soil remains moist and suffocates weeds.

For even quicker grown, side-dress with a compost tea once or twice throughout the growing cycle.​

https://www.epicgardening.com/how-to-grow-salad-greens/

[Albion Wilde]

Penstemon: (can't get the image to flip correctly)

Is this right way up?

Gorgeous! Do they have fragrance?

[Bon of Babble]

Yes. Thanks.

Have no idea why I couldn’t get it to flip correctly, never had it happen before.

No scent - but bees like it - and it’s native to California.

I also have a hot pink one that is amazing when it blooms and a smaller lavender one. It seems to tolerate our hot winds, dry air and temperature swings of 30 degrees over a few days.

[musicman]

BTTT!!!!

[Pollard]

I’ve got a 16” x 48” piece of closed cell foam about 1/2” thick I use for a kneeling pad. I have a garden cart you can sit on and has storage under the seat/lid but I set a small but heavy metal band saw on it and broke the seat/lid. Need to fix it one of these days. It has wheels but you have to take your body weight off it to roll it. It’s all plastic.

[Pollard]

4 broccoli
8 collards
4 + 4 mustards
18 peas

All eaten by something. Lettuce untouched. No paw prints that I could find. Much of it happened in the past 24 hours and it’s been way too cold for bugs and the only thing I’ve seen even on warm days is bees, wasps and flies.

Just refilled the 72 cell tray with potting mix to start anew. I’m going to pot them up and let them get bigger this time. I’ve got a game camera but don’t know if it would pick up on a chipmunk/mouse or whatever’s fitting through the 2 inch spaces in the bottom of the field fence. We’ve got small birds that stay here all Winter. Don’t know if they’re into brassicas and peas.

Started peas in the ground in the same area several years ago and didn’t have a problem.

[Albion Wilde]

Lovely, smell or no smell!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Or....

[metmom]

I want to put some of my stuff out but am waiting on the forecast for the next couple weeks and waiting for slugs to make their appearance so I can deal with them.

I also am going to make some row covers on the turkey wire and when I can protect the plants from stuff like cabbage loopers, then they’ll go out.

[MomwithHope]

Like that lettuce chart, stole it.
Planted 70 jiffy pellets. Tomatoes - campari, san marzano, celebrity, sabre and opolka. Broccoli, peppers - shishito, miniature red bell peppers carmen, carmells, hoant jalapeno, goiant cayenne, long sweet peppers, costa rican red peppers, red romaine, regular romaine, giant ceasar. The rest start in the ground at the end of May. Sugar pea pods, chinese long beans, cilantro, thyme, radishes and potatoes and carrots in a couple of big pots. Probably forgot a few things. This year I am going to make some shishito peppers, flash char them for about 30 seconds on the charcoal grill, stuff them with some homemade cream type cheese, and then jar up in olive oil. We bought a jar this winter at Costco. They were pepperoncini a little too hot, plus it was all in canola oil!! Label said product of Greece so I assumed olive. Hoping it will dry out and warm up enough for the first garden til on Monday. We always till twice and sometimes 3 times. Going to be using Chicken Soup for the Soil again this year, really happy with the yields last year. And I picked up a mason bee house, I have always wanted to try them. Hurry up warmer weaather!