Gardens Archive - MAY 2004
Now that the month of May has arrived bringing with it longer hours of daylight and hopefully warmer weather, we can look forward to fresh produce from the garden. Our early sowings of Greek Cress and Wrinkle Crinkle Cress have been successful though early sowings of Lettuce and Italian Misticanza have been patchy, due to cold soil temperatures.
Many early outdoor seed sowings have been erratic due to the drying east winds and the cold soil, though sowings made in modules in the greenhouse and planted out later have been successful. One particularly useful early Lettuce is the French Red Oak Leaf variety Cracouiensis and the Italian Lingua Di Canario.
Rocket is a useful salad ingredient at this time of the year and along with the standard variety found on supermarket shelves we are also using Skyrocket and Dentellata with Lobed Leaves, Wild Rocket with its unusual shape, Olive Leaf Rocket and my favorite Turkish Rocket.
Parsley is noted for being slow to germinate, but if you do have trouble either soak the seed overnight in warm water or pour boiling water along the row after sowing. Along with the well-known curly and flat leaved varieties, we are growing Italian Flat Leaves, in my opinion the best for flavour which can grow 45 cm high.
We are also growing an old French variety called Frise Vert Fonce, and a reputedly hardy curly variety from Thompson and Morgan called Big Mountain.
The Giant Red Mustard we grew last year has continued to crop through the winter, along with Southern Giant and Green in the Snow. The variety Golden Streak with its finely divided leaves picked small with the other mustards, gives flavour to summer salads. All are available from Halcyon Seeds.
The Japanese Mizuna, Mibuna, Komatsuna Torasin, Misome, Ryokusai and Pak Choi Hanakan are useful this time of the year being able to tolerate cold soil temperatures. Mizuna picked small adds interest to salads, but if allowed to get large can be used as wilted greens.
If you have been growing American Land Cress and Corn Salad they will probably have flowered by now and will need re-sowing, though they are better reserved for the colder winter months.
Wild garlic also picked small can be used to add flavour to dishes at this time of the year, and the white flowers are both decorative and edible. Chives are at their best now, but if they do start to flower they to are edible. The most common reason for leaf crops flowering is lack of water. At this time of the year that is probably due to cold east winds.
The next months are a busy time in the garden, seed sowing, transplanting and the inevitable weeding, but I do hope you have time to sit back and enjoy your labors and savor the flavours of homegrown produce.
Andrew Mellin (Head Gardener Northcote Manor)