Leafy greens are the best! They win ‘Most Resilient Crop of All’ for being the easiest to grow, hands down the most nutritious and so very generous – they give and give.
Try a few new ones each season and steadily build a diverse collection that’ll take you through the year. That way, no matter what happens in the outside world – you’ve got nourishing fresh greens, every night for tea.
Go diverse and grow lots of different ones. Stirfries and salads are much more flavour-some and exciting with a bunch of 12 or so different greens.
- spunky ones like cavalo nero, bronze fennel or russian red kale
- spicy land cress, mizuna or rocket
- creamy miners lettuce bok choy or komatsuna
- crisp ones like little gem lettuce or gai lan
- bitter endive, dandelion or chicory for inner mojo
- pretty ones like chard, coriander or italian parsley
- nourishing chickweed, lovely lemony sorrell, refreshing mint and fragrant dill …. so many cool ones to choose from.
For ease of harvest, plant them where they are easily accessible – along the picking edge. Team them up with vegies, herbs, flowers, roses or under fruit trees – as long as they are planted in their preferred environment, they’ll grow with anyone. They all grow fabulously in containers.
Leave the ones you love to eat, and the ones you wish more of – to go to seed. Let them re sow themselves everywhere – free seedlings! There’s nothing cooler than a forest of useful leafy greens turning up right when you need them, without even lifting a finger.
To make them last a long time, keep up with picking the outside leaves for dinner. As you do, remove the old ratty foliage and give it to the chooks, drop it on as mulch or add to the compost heap. They grow for ages in this way – some over one whole season, others over 2, and many for years! If there’s one thing worthy of your gardening time, let it be a swag of greens.
