|
|
Winter greens gardens yield healthy table choices, few pesky pests
By Audrey Alessi
You can still start a winter greens garden. Mine's full of organic, colorful, peppery and spicy leaves along with delicious tasting greens.
Those of us living in North Florida are fortunate. We can garden year around. My fall and winter garden is my most favorite, not only for the palette available to plant, but also that it is basically pest-free, and more comfortable for us and the plants, weather-wise.
Decades ago, iceberg lettuce, mustard greens, collards, cabbage and turnips dominated fall-winter gardens in North Florida. Certainly those are nothing to snub. Increased interest about nutrition and organically grown produce, however, has opened up a full cornucopia of choices for at home gardeners.
These include Asian greens such as baby bok choy, mizuna, purple mustards and tat soi, as well as European leafy choices, such as the myriad of salad greens, Mache, arugula and radicchio. Heirloom salad greens, chicories and other wild greens also join the line-up.
Not only do these beauties grow quickly and easily, they are jam-packed with nutrition - vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. And they thrive in our mild winters. Just provide your salad greens and leafy vegetables a compost-rich, moist soil. They will benefit from additional applications of compost as a top-dressing and/or small amount of an organic fertilizer rich in nitrogen, such as fish emulsion or an organic granular fertilizer rich in manure.
Winter greens gardens are seldom bothered by pests and diseases; you still may find cabbage loopers, army worms and aphids. You can hand-pick the first two pests, or use an environmentally safe product such as BT. For the aphids, one need only to spray them with a direct shower from the hose or use an insecticidal soap spray.
The following list briefly describes some of the easily grown favorites sure to have reserved spots in my garden and containers every fall and winter.
- Arugula and rustic arugula have deeply lobed leaves with a nutty, peppery flavor. Wonderful cooked or eaten raw. (My favorite.) The flowers are edible and are attractive to beneficial insects and hummingbirds love them come spring.
- Chicories include radicchio, frizze, endive and escarole. They vary from mild to a slightly bitter taste, raw or cooked.
- Kale is beautiful and tasty as well. A winter staple whether raw or cooked. Look for stunningly beautiful lacinato kale, lavender rosy red Russian kale, and my absolute favorite Red Bor kale. They're not only tasty but attractive as well, even at the beginning of summer.
- Lettuces that do well here include "black-seeded Simpson" (an heirloom), "deer tongue," "four seasons," "speckled trout-back," "lolo rosso," and "red sails" to name a few.
- Mache has wonderfully nutty-flavored spoon-shaped leaves. You will want some to go to flower, for it has sweet white edible blooms that also attract a variety of beneficial insects.
- Minutina is a striking dark green rosette of spiky leaves with a fresh, mild grassy flavor. An excellent contrast to spicy, peppery greens.
- Oriental greens include bok choy, wonderful in stir-fry and in a salad with just the B.C. greens, minced garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a dash of organic olive oil. Shungiku, the annual chrysanthemum, grown for its tangy leaves, stems and edible flowers. Mizuna is a bright green beauty, possessing a mild-mustard flavor. Tat-soi is a flat bok-choy relative with dark green glossy and tender stalks
and flowers.
- Wild greens include miner's lettuce called Claytonia, which has succulent leaves having a slightly grassy flavor. Dandelion greens,
flavorful and slightly bitter, adding a nutritious addition to salads as well as stir-fry. Do not forget our wild, native violets; their leaves add a slightly tangy flavor to a salad, plus major nutritional value. The violet blossoms add color and spike to the salad.
Remember this type of gardening is so easy and can be done in the ground or in containers. Let your desire for healthy, organic self-grown produce start by planting a winter garden today. Enjoy and happy gardening.
Audrey Alessi is a horticulturist with Native Nurseries in Tallahassee as well as a member of the University of Florida IFAS Leon County Extension Advisory Committee.
|
