Greens Harvest - Week #3

On Saturday I managed to find a window between the rain showers to harvest some salad greens. As I lifted the row cover from the first bed, I discovered that the Wasabi" arugula had bolted. It wasn't a complete shock, thanks to a warning I received last week from Dave at Our Happy Acres telling me arugula was quick to bolt when temperatures rose.

It was a little frustrating though, since I hadn't even harvested any yet. So I took some small scissors and cut what I could away from the bloom stocks. I couldn't resist popping two small leaves in my mouth to see if this really, truly did taste like wasabi. The answer quickly came as my mouth caught fire, my nose begin to tingle, and I started coughing. It tastes exactly like wasabi! My sister, the heat lover of the family agreed. She did comment though, once she mixed it with other greens and poured dressing on the salad, she could no longer taste the wasabi flavor or feel any heat. What a fun variety to experiment with. Thanks Territorial Seed!

The greens have really started to come on this week. Just two weeks ago it was difficult to pick enough for 3 small dinner salads. Today I could pick that amount from any one of the three raised beds.

 Along with my garden helper Padma, we harvested:

• "Heirloom Cutting Mix" Lettuce - 1.7 oz
• "Charger" Spinach - 1.7 oz
• "Sweet Greens and Reds" Lettuce - 2.0 oz
• "Catalina" Spinach - 2.3 oz
• "Wasabi" Arugula - .2 oz
• "Renee's Baby Leaf Blend" Lettuce - 1.7 oz
• "Mild Mustard Mix" - 1.0 oz
• Total Harvest - 10.6 oz.

 

Greens Update

Yesterday, during a break in the bulb planting marathon, I planting some more spinach. I seeded the last 1/2 open raised bed with "Charger" Spinach from Seeds of Change. This is the variety that I grew last year that did so well. While I was in the Kitchen Garden, I couldn't resist lifting up the remay tunnels and checking on the other 2 raised beds. The "Sweet Greens and Reds" lettuce blend is growing a bit more each week. Now most of each row is nicely filled in with baby plants.

A clump of baby red lettuce.

In the other half of that bed I initially planted the "Catalina" Spinach. It didn't appear as though it was germinating very well, so I reseeded the area with "Wasabi" Arugula. Well guess what? Not only is the arugula up but now more and more of the spinach is germinating! I might need to do some spinach transplanting down the road.

In the next raised bed, both the "Baby Leaf Blend" lettuce and the "Mild Mustard Mix" are performing well. Especially the mustard. As you can see, some mustard seedling thinning is in my future.

The Greens After Two Weeks

Lifting up the remay cloth today brought me a big surprise. I realized that I accidentally planted the "Wasabi" Arugula in the same bed as the "Catalina" Spinach. Whoops! Well, the good news is very little of the spinach has germinated but, as you can see, the arugula is coming up like crazy. It is tiny, tiny, tiny right now but it looks like every darn seed I planted germinated. I wasn't too sure this would happen. The packet said the soil temperature needed to be between 55-70 degrees. I am pretty sure we haven't ever hit that mark, even with the protective remay cover. But the arugula is clearly sprouting like mad.

I was also pleased to see that the "Heirloom Cutting Mix" lettuce is finally germinating well. I read recently on another blog that although lettuce seed will keep for many years, its speed of germination decreases with each year. Since this seed one year old, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that it look a week longer than the two other varieties that I bought new this year.

Here's a picture of another group of lettuce plants. As you can see, they have germinated at a higher rate and are farther along than the "Heirloom Cutting Mix".