Chapter 10: A Salad for All Seasons: Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Specialty Greens

In This Chapter

Leafing through lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard varieties

Joining the green revolution: dandelions and other unusual greens

Caring for your green crops

If you're a beginning gardener and have never grown a vegetable in your life before, try greens. You'll find no easier group of vegetables to grow than greens. Unlike other vegetables that require weeks or even months of nurturing, greens are good things that come even to those who can't wait. Because you don't have to wait for flowering and fruiting to enjoy their green goodness, you can just pick the leaves at any stage, and — voilà! — you have dinner.

In many growing areas, you can have fresh greens year-round from your garden with just a little planning. Sure, it's easy to buy a head of lettuce at the grocery store or farmer's market, but the pure joy of running out to the garden in the evening and plucking a fresh head for dinner gives you a great sense of satisfaction while introducing you to unusual varieties and flavors not readily available from most supermarkets. Plus you don't have to push a shopping cart with a bad wheel or break up any arguments in the cereal aisle just to gather basic salad ingredients.

And speaking of salad, for most people, lettuce and salad are synonymous. Lettuce is definitely the number-one green, but in this chapter, I also discuss two other major greens crops: spinach and Swiss chard. In addition, I talk about my favorite unusual wild greens, including dandelions and sorrel. (Flip to Chapter 11 for details on other unusual yet more mainstream types of greens, such as arugula, collards, and endive.)

Greens, by nature, are cool, moisture-loving crops. When the weather heats up to above 80 degrees Fahrenheit for several days in a row and the plant is mature enough, annual greens such as lettuce and spinach think the end is near and send up a seed stalk. This process is called bolting. Bolting doesn't just mean getting out of the house quickly. It's also a term used to describe a greens crop gone bad. During this process, the flavor of the greens quickly becomes bitter, so plan to plant and harvest your greens while the weather's cool or else grow varieties that are tolerant of the heat. I provide guidelines for growing all types of greens at the end of this chapter.

Lettuce Get Together

Originally from the Mediterranean area, lettuce (Latuca sativa) was eaten at the tables of Persian kings in 550 B.C. and was once thought to be an aphrodisiac. I can't attest to its aphrodisiacal qualities, but I do know that lettuce is considered the quintessential salad crop around the world.

The four basic types of lettuce — crisphead, loose-head, loose-leaf, and romaine lettuce (all shown in Figure 10-1) — offer a number of tasty varieties to delight the palate. The most common are green-colored leaf varieties, but you can grow many red- and burgundy-colored leaf varieties and those with a mixture of colors, too. Some varieties form solid heads, but others don't. Varieties have smooth, frilly, or deeply cut leaves.

The following sections describe the four basic types of lettuce along with their days to maturity and some of my favorite varieties. They all are best in cool weather conditions, but some varieties can tolerate the heat. Just remember that lettuce can be eaten much younger, depending on your needs and appetite.

Crisphead lettuce

The crisphead group is most widely known as the "iceberg" lettuces, so named because when the lettuce was shipped from California (the main lettuce-growing region in the United States) to the East Coast in the early 1900s, mounds of ice were used to keep it cool and fresh.

‘Iceberg' is the most widely known variety, but many other crispheads are just as tasty and easy to grow. This type of lettuce forms a solid head when mature, with white, crunchy, densely packed inner leaves. Crispheads tend to take at least 70 days to mature from seeding in the garden. Following are some popular varieties of crisphead lettuce:

‘Iceberg': Famous in grocery stores across the country, these compact heads have tightly-packed smooth leaves and white hearts. They're best when grown in cool conditions (below 70 degrees), because then they form solid heads. (Find tips for growing head lettuce in the section "Growing Great Greens," later in this chapter.)

‘Nevada': This French crisphead features upright, bright green ruffled leaves with a nutty flavor. These cool-weather plants resist tip burn, rot, and bolting.

‘Summertime': So named for its ability to form solid heads in the heat of summer, ‘Summertime' has green, frilly leaves and a crisp texture.

Romaine lettuce

Romaine was named by the Romans, who believed in the healthful properties of this type of lettuce. Emperor Caesar Augustus even built a statue in praise of romaine lettuce, so it's no surprise that this is the type of lettuce featured in Caesar salad. The alternative name, "Cos," comes from the Greek island of Kos, where it's popular.

Romaine lettuce grows tall, upright, solid heads and long, thick green or red leaves with solid midribs (the middle vein of the leaf). This type of lettuce tends to take at least 70 days to mature from seeding and can withstand summer heat. It can be grown as a "cut and come again" type of lettuce. Here are a few common varieties:

‘Outredgeous': Bright red, thick, glossy, ruffle-edged leaves form the red color best on this open-pollinated variety when grown in partly shaded areas.

‘Parris Island Cos': This smooth, green-leafed, open-pollinated romaine lettuce has 10-inch-tall, thick, green leaves.

‘Rouge D'Hiver': An old French heirloom with bronze-red smooth leaves and a buttery texture. It tolerates cold better than heat.

‘Winter Density': This variety is a green smooth-leaf lettuce that's actually a cross between a loose-head and a romaine-type lettuce. This 8-inch-tall plant is both heat and cold tolerant.

Loose-head lettuce

Loose-head or Butterhead lettuce features dark or medium green leaves or red leaves and smooth, thick outer leaves folded around a loosely-formed, yellow-to-white head. The heads of loose-head lettuce aren't solid like a crisphead type, but they're easier to grow, especially during the summer heat. This type matures starting at 60 days from seeding. Here are a few popular varieties:

‘Bibb': ‘Bibb' is an heirloom, dark green, smooth-leafed, loose-head lettuce that dates back to the 1800s.

‘Buttercrunch': A bolt-resistant, open-pollinated, loose-head type, ‘Buttercrunch' has thick, juicy, ruffled leaves; it's best grown as a summer crop.

‘Deer Tongue': This heirloom, loose-head type lettuce with tongue-shaped, smooth-edged, green leaves is slow to bolt, making it a good choice in warm weather. Kids are fascinated by this variety because of its unique shape and name.

‘Four Seasons' (Merveille des Quatre Saisons): This heirloom has beautiful deep burgundy, smooth-edged, puckered outer leaves covering a creamy green-leaved heart. The plants are compact and sweet.

‘Speckles': An unusual Amish heirloom Bibb-type lettuce with red speckles on olive green, smooth-edged, slightly puckered leaves and a blanched green heart.

Loose-leaf lettuce

Loose-leaf lettuce doesn't form a solid head and is best harvested by picking off the mature outer leaves, allowing new leaves to continue growing. This type is often cut and allowed to "come again" (I discuss this technique later in this chapter) to provide multiple crops of greens from one head. You can start harvesting this type about 45 days from seeding. Some popular varieties include the following:

‘Black Seeded Simpson': This widely adapted variety is an heirloom lettuce with crinkled, light green leaves. ‘Simpson Elite' is a more heat-resistant strain of this classic variety.

‘New Red Fire': This unusual, open-pollinated variety has extremely frilly, burgundy-red puckered leaves. It's slow growing and disease resistant.

‘Red Salad Bowl': This is a red version of the classic ‘Salad Bowl'. It's a loose-leaf, open-pollinated lettuce that features frilly green leaves and a mild, tender taste. This attractive burgundy-red-leafed version grows and looks best in cooler weather.

‘Royal Oak Leaf': An improved version of the old-fashioned oak leaf, the ‘Royal Oak Leaf' is open-pollinated, has bigger, more defined, darker green, deeply cut leaves and is slower to bolt, making it better for warm-weather growing.

Popeye's Pal: Spinach

Spinach is a Middle Eastern vegetable that has been cultivated for centuries. The dark green leaves of spinach (Spinacia oleracea) are nutritious (just ask Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Brutus of comic book fame) and stronger tasting than lettuce. It's one of the first crops many gardeners plant in spring. In fact, when the heat comes, spinach quickly bolts. However, if you love spinach and want to eat it throughout the summer, you can grow warm-weather spinach look-a-like crops that produce all summer, such as New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) and Malabar spinach (Basella rubra). Though not in the spinach family, they have a similar look and taste.

You can grow two different leaf types of spinach: savoy (crinkled) and smooth. Which is better is a matter of personal preference. The savoy-leaf types give you more leaf surface to hold that salad dressing, but the smooth-leaf types are easier to clean.

Unless otherwise noted, the varieties in the following sections mature in about 30 to 45 days from a spring planting. As with lettuce (which I describe earlier in this chapter), you can always harvest the young, tender greens earlier if you just can't wait.

Savoy spinach

The following are popular savoy-type (crinkled-leaf) spinach varieties:

‘Bloomsdale Long Standing': This heirloom variety has thick-textured, glossy, crinkled, dark green leaves.

‘Melody': This hybrid, All-America Selections winner (AAS; see Chapter 4 for more) features large semi-savoy leaves and good disease resistance.

‘Tyee': This hybrid, slightly savoy-type is a vigorous grower. It's a personal favorite because it's easy to grow and slow to bolt.

Smooth spinach and some spinachlike friends

Following are a few smooth spinach varieties and a couple of good look-and-taste-alikes that are easy to grow:

‘Malabar Red Stem': Although this plant isn't botanically related to spinach, its vining red stems produce spinachlike leaves all summer. This heat lover grows to 6 feet tall, so it must be trellised and grown like a pole bean (see Chapter 7 for details on growing beans). It can be used as a spinach substitute raw or cooked.

‘New Zealand': This 1- to 2-foot-tall plant resembles spinach in looks and flavor, but it's able to withstand summer heat. It can be cut repeatedly and still regrow, a method called cut and come again. I talk more about this method later in this chapter.

‘Oriental Giant': This hybrid variety produces large, smooth, 12- to 15-inch-long leaves and yields up to three times more foliage than other spinach varieties.

‘Reddy': This smooth-leafed hybrid spinach variety has red stalks and veins that contrast nicely with its deep green, arrow-shaped leaves.

‘Renegade': This smooth-leafed hybrid spinach variety is faster growing and more disease resistant than the similar ‘Space' variety.

The Attractive and Hardy Swiss Chard

Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) has finally come of age. With the recent introduction of more colorful varieties, this green is now a top specialty treat in many gardens. (Even Aristotle wrote about the virtues of this lovely plant!) Swiss chard hails from southern Europe, where it grew up next to its close cousin, the beet. In fact, the only differences between the two vegetables are that chard (sometimes known as "spinach beet") doesn't have the bulbous root of the beet, and its greens are more tender and prolific.

I've grown Swiss chard for years because it has so many wonderful characteristics: It's easy to grow; doesn't bolt like spinach; has a consistent flavor, even in the hot summer; and has leaves that keep producing until frost. I also grow chard for the gorgeous color of its midribs (the middle part of the leaf). Varieties such as ‘Rhubarb' and ‘Bright Lights' make this garden green a real showstopper.

The color of the midrib is evident even at a young stage, so picking them as baby greens still yields the attractive look. These colorful varieties look so beautiful I sometimes grow them as ornamentals in my flower garden.

The following varieties all mature between 50 and 60 days from direct seeding in the garden, but the baby greens can be harvested as early as 1 month after seeding:

‘Bright Lights': This AAS-winning hybrid variety features a mix of plants with red, pink, yellow, gold, or orange midribs on leaves that taste as good as they look. These leaves have a milder texture than other chard varieties.

‘Bright Yellow': This open-pollinated variety's yellow midrib contrasts beautifully with the dark green leaves.

‘Fordhook Giant': This open-pollinated variety features a thick, celerylike midrib with large, dark green savoy (crinkled) leaves. It's a heavy producer.

‘Rhubarb': An heirloom, burgundy-red midrib variety with dark green leaves, this variety is a bit smaller than other chards, but it's still tasty and good looking.

Going Wild with Specialty Greens

Salad has gone through a revolution in the past 20 years. At one time, salad meant simply lettuce, spinach, and maybe Swiss chard. No longer. With the growing interest in exotic Chinese and European greens, salad palettes have expanded to include many ethnic greens, including arugula and mizuna (see Chapter 11 for more on these particular greens). Folks are even becoming interested in greens previously thought to be weeds, such as sorrel and — the scourge of lawn lovers — dandelions.

Eating these wild greens isn't a new idea; in fact, when I was a boy, my Italian grandmother picked wild dandelion greens in spring to be sautéed with garlic and olive oil. I don't bother cultivating these greens in the garden; I just eat my lawn! It's loaded with dandelions, sorrel, and plantain. Even my cultivated gardens have great annual weeds that I harvest young and mix in salads, including lamb's quarters, chickweed, and pigweed. I'm not alone; such culinary practices are being rediscovered and embraced as the interest in ethnic dishes grows.

For many wild greens, you can just go into your garden or lawn and munch away, but never eat greens from lawns treated with pesticides.

You have good reason to cultivate and enjoy unusual greens. In fact, many types aren't considered weeds, and you actually can cultivate them in your garden. Many of these are very easy to grow (some can even withstand freezing temperatures), they're more nutritious than traditional lettuce, and their flavors are unique and sometimes quite surprising.

Many of the most popular and more mainstream specialty greens like endive are discussed in Chapter 11. But if you're curious about growing some of the wild ones, try a few of the eyebrow-raising varieties listed here. Most can be harvested starting about 1 month after direct seeding in the garden. (Seeding gives you better varieties and more control than just waiting for the weed to pop up.) You also can find many of these varieties commercially. Check out some of my favorites:

Asian greens: This catch-all phrase refers to a number of different greens. I cover mizuna in Chapter 11, but here are some lesser-known types that are great eaten on their own or tossed into mesclun mixtures (see the nearby sidebar):

• ‘Tatsoi' produces a tight rosette of mild-flavored leaves. It's a cool-season green.

• ‘Komatsuna' has mild, fleshy, rounded dark green leaves with rounded stems. It tolerates heat well.

• ‘Shungiku' is an edible chrysanthemum. The leaves are harvested when less than 8 inches tall and used in salads, sushi, and pickles. This variety likes cool weather.

Miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata): Heart-shaped leaves encircle a white-flowered stem. This variety grows best in cool weather and regrows after harvesting. It's good planted in fall as a winter salad green.

Dandelion: Yes, you can plant the same dandelions that dad has spent years pulling out or mowing over. Harvest them young during cool weather in spring or fall — when the leaves are about 4 to 6 inches long — so the greens are only slightly bitter. Varieties from France and Italy, such as ‘Ameliore', grow taller and are easier to harvest.

Mache (corn salad or lamb's lettuce): This cool-weather-loving and cold-tolerant green features small, dark green, tender leaves in a rosette shape with a mild, nutty flavor. It's often the first green to start growing. Some varieties to try include ‘Vit' (especially good for cold and wet conditions) and ‘d'Etamps', which has large, rounded leaves.

Mustard: These beautiful, 1- to 2-foot-tall, upright-growing, spicy greens grow best in cool weather and make a bold statement in the garden. They're great used in salad mixes. The spicy-hot, raw flavor mellows when cooked. Some of the best varieties include ‘Green Wave' (heavily curled, spicy green leaves), ‘Red Giant' (large, purple-tinted, mildly flavored leaves), and ‘Osaka Purple' (red, mildly flavored leaves that are more compact than 'Red Giant').

Sorrel (Rumex sanguineus): The 8-inch-long, arrow-shaped greens start growing in early spring and continue until fall. They have a distinct, lemony flavor that's great in salads and soups. This green perennializes (comes back each year on its own) and can grow in light shade. A beautiful, red-tinged variety is ‘Red Veined' sorrel.

Vegetable amaranth: This is a variety of the ancient grain amaranth that's harvested young for its oval-shaped, coleuslike leaves. The leaves may be all green, green-and-red colored, or all red, depending on the variety. These greens germinate best in warm weather.

Growing Great Greens

Fertile soil and consistent watering are essential to growing great greens. Given those two factors, greens have to be one of the easiest vegetables to grow. The biggest problem gardeners have with greens is too much success — in other words, an overabundant harvest that you can't eat! The following sections offer tips for getting the most out of your greens.

Timing is everything: Determining when to plant your greens

In areas with mild summers and winters, such as the West Coast, greens are easy to grow year-round. For most other areas, spring and fall are the best times to grow greens.

Greens can be direct sown in the garden starting in spring and, in cool areas, planted throughout the summer until September. If you want to get a jump on the season, start seeds 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost date in your area (see the appendix for a listing of first and last frost dates) so they can be planted 2 to 3 weeks later.

Gardeners in mild winter areas such as Arizona, Texas, and Florida may prefer a winter crop of greens because the weather is more favorable. Summer is too hot to germinate the seeds and grow the traditional types of lettuce and greens. For a winter crop, sow seeds indoors in fall to be transplanted into the garden a month later.

If you don't have the right climate for year-round growing but love fresh greens, here are some guidelines for growing your own salad 12 months of the year in spite of cold winters and hot summers:

Choose the right varieties. To grow a winter greens crop in cold-winter areas (hardiness zone 5 or 6) without season extenders (see Chapter 21), plant spinach, arugula, claytonia, mizuna, and winter lettuce varieties such as ‘Winter Density'. To grow greens through summer in warm areas (hardiness zone 7 and warmer) choose greens that like the heat, such as Malabar or New Zealand spinach.

Time your planting. Start heat-loving greens in late spring so they mature during summer's heat. For winter greens in the cold areas, start cold-tolerant plants in fall so they mature to full size before the bitter cold weather of December. The greens don't have to grow during the short winter days and cold temperatures — they just need to stay alive.

Keep the soil fertile. Successive crops of greens will take nutrients out of the soil, so after every crop you remove, add a 2- to 3-inch layer of compost to the soil and work it in well.

Protect the plants. During the summer heat, use shade cloth to block the afternoon sun. In the North, protect greens through the cold winter by growing them in cold frames (see Chapter 21 for cold frame designs).

Here are a couple of other tips for planting greens at the right time:

Stagger your plantings to avoid producing too large a supply. I remember planting a 10-foot row of lettuce all at once, watching it germinate and grow, and feeling very smug about my success. My satisfaction evaporated when I was inundated a month later with lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. I got sick of eating salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and most of my crop eventually bolted and tasted bitter. I learned my lesson that year.

Planting small, 2-to-4-foot patches of greens every 2 weeks throughout the growing season, which is referred to as succession planting (see Chapter 16), is the best way to ensure a manageable supply of lettuce all summer long. In warm areas, you may want to skip planting in midsummer because lettuce will bolt from the heat.

Give crisphead lettuce the environment it needs to thrive. Growing great crisphead or iceberg lettuce can be a challenge for many gardeners. The problem is that crisphead lettuce likes cool temperatures (50 to 60 degrees) throughout the growing season, especially when it's trying to form a head. For northern and southern gardeners, fall planting is the key. In warm areas, start seeds indoors in September; then place the seedlings in the garden in October or November. In cooler climates, start seeds indoors in July to plant in the garden in August or September. Keep plants well watered and feed them every 3 weeks with fish emulsion (which I discuss later in this chapter). By the cool days of fall, your iceberg lettuce heads should form.

Putting your greens to bed

Greens are easiest grown in raised beds (see Chapter 3 for more on raised beds). The beds are flat and smooth on top with most of the rocks and debris removed. Raised beds drain water well, which greens love, and they're easy to work. Instead of planting in a straight row (which is okay, by the way), you can broadcast the seeds over the top of the entire bed. This wide row planting technique is described in Chapter 13. By using the wide row planting technique, you get more greens per square foot sooner with less weeding and watering.

If you don't have room for greens with all those other gorgeous vegetables growing, get creative about where you plant. Because greens plants are generally small and fast growing, you can tuck them in all kinds of empty patches in your garden. For example, you can plant greens in between newly planted tomato, broccoli, or cabbage seedlings; under a pole bean teepee; between rows of corn; or around carrots in the carrot patch. The greens mature and are harvested before the other plants get too large to shade them. In the carrot patch, harvesting the greens gives room for these root crops to enlarge and mature. In summer, after your crop of beans or peas is finished, yank out the exhausted plants and plant a quick crop of lettuce to harvest later in late summer or fall.

Adding nitrogen-rich fishy fertilizer

Greens have simple fertilizing needs. You eat the leaves. Leaves need nitrogen to grow. So the soil needs to be rich in nitrogen. Any questions? That being said, it's important to remember balance in all things, including fertilizer in your lettuce patch. So applying an organic fertilizer, such as blood meal, that's high in nitrogen is a good practice. (Chapter 15 provides more information on organic fertilizers.) I suggest working in a 3- to 4-inch layer of compost and applying soluble nitrogen fertilizer, such as fish emulsion, every few weeks. By doing so, your greens stay lush and mature quickly.

Thin and bare it: Thinning your greens

Whether you plant in straight rows or wide rows, greens need thinning. Generally, spinach and loose-leaf lettuces need 3 to 4 inches between plants; crisphead and romaine lettuce like 6 to 10 inches. Thinning isn't critical if you're harvesting your greens when small or "baby" size.

Thin the seedlings as soon as each plant has four leaves. (Don't throw out those thinnings, though. They make great "baby" greens for salad.) After the plants are properly spaced, mulching with a 2- to 3-inch layer of hay or straw is a good way to conserve vital moisture, prevent weeds, and keep the leaves clean of splashing soil after rain. (Check out Chapter 13 for more information on thinning seedlings.)

Watering to win the war against wilt

Keeping the soil consistently moist after planting is a good way to avoid a common complaint with lettuces: The seeds never came up.

Greens need moist soil to germinate. Once growing, the plants generally have small root systems, so they're the first vegetable to wilt when the soil is too dry. Water deeply — 5 to 6 inches deep — and mulch to keep greens crisp. A simple way to water is to use soaker hoses or drip irrigation (Chapter 15 describes watering techniques). To preserve moisture, especially if it's hot, lay a floating row cover (a lightweight, cheesecloth-like material that lets air, water, and sunlight through and keep the bugs out) over the bed until the seedlings emerge.

Working out the bugs (and other common ailments)

Greens have some of the problems that plague other vegetables. Insects such as aphids and white flies and diseases such as white mold and viruses can quickly destroy a crop. Because greens tend to have shallow and relatively small root systems, they can succumb easily to damage. Slugs are a threat to young seedlings in moist areas such as the Pacific Northwest, and rabbits and woodchucks are critters that love greens anywhere. All these problems are covered in depth in Chapter 17, but remember that fertile, well-drained soil that's kept moist and fertilized is usually your best bet against any problems with your greens crop. And don't hesitate to yank out an insect-infested or animal-chewed crop: Greens grow and mature so quickly, it may be better to start over than to nurse a sick crop.

Here are a few specific problems that plague greens:

Bottom rot: This condition, caused by a fungus, makes lettuce (especially head lettuce) wilt and rot before maturing. It's mostly seen in poorly drained soil during wet conditions. To avoid this problem, rotate crops, keep your soil well drained, and grow lettuce in raised beds.

Spinach leaf miner: This small fly lays eggs on spinach and Swiss chard leaves. The eggs hatch, and the tiny larvae tunnel in between the leaf layers. Pick off and destroy tunneled leaves, and cover the crop with a floating row cover after germination to prevent damage.

Tip burn: Tip burn causes the leaves of head lettuce to turn brown at the edges. This condition is seen during hot weather when soil moisture tends to fluctuate, creating a calcium deficiency in plants. Don't bother adding calcium to the soil, but do pick off burned leaves, choose varieties that resist tip burn, and keep the soil evenly moist to control this problem.

Your bowl runneth over: Harvesting greens

Harvesting greens couldn't be easier. After all, you eat the leaves. Except for crisphead lettuces, harvest greens while they're young and tender to avoid a common complaint of lettuce growers: bitter-tasting lettuce. Bitter taste usually develops in older plants, so start picking when the leaves are 4 inches long. Harvest the outer leaves first to allow the inner leaves to continue to develop. Also, wait until you're almost ready to prepare your meal to harvest. That way, the greens will be fresh and crisp in your salad bowl.

Some lettuces, such as loose-leaf varieties and Swiss chard, are examples of "cut and come again" greens (see Figure 10-2). You can cut these greens at the ground level — they'll sprout new leaves from their bases — or you can just harvest the mature leaves, leaving the immature leaves to continue growing. Cutting the leaves at ground level is a great alternative to replanting, and you can cut the plants up to four times.

Crisphead or iceberg lettuce can be harvested young, before heads form. However, to get the solid, blanched heads seen in grocery stores, wait until full maturity when heads are firm when squeezed.