Peter Clarke's planting advice - sow winter greens
If you have anywhere to grow stuff under cover, greenhouse, polytunnel, conservatory etc now is the time to sow winter salads.
- Spinach
- mizuna
- mustard
- winter lettuce
- lambs lettuce
- oriental mustards
- Pak Choi
- Tatsoi
- baby greens (small sweet cabbages grown for small leaves)
I sow them in module trays with 40 modules per large seed tray size ( about A4) and keep them indoors.
- Be careful with the watering, not too much and watch out for the naughty nibblers, slugs and caterpillars.
When they reach a good size, say in mid October plant them out in beds in the greenhouse or boxes in the conservatory about 20cm x 20cm apart - and again be careful with the water, not too much.
In boxes like those blue plastic ones you see in green grocers with mushrooms in (line with newspaper and fill with compost) they can be planted closer, we are going to pick leaves off each plant when we want a salad rather than cut the whole head so they don't need so much room.