Growing Your Own Vegetables: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide (8 page)

HARVESTING:
Early cabbage matures quickly and may split if left too long, while mid- and late-season cabbages, which mature in late summer and fall as the weather is cooling, will hold for much longer in the garden without splitting. Cut close to the head, leaving the stem, and continue to water to get a second crop of smaller heads each about the size of a baseball. Cabbage can stand nighttime temperatures down to 20°F, making it a good candidate to overwinter in the garden.

BANISH BUGS WITH HERBS

Scatter dill seed among young cabbages or plant a row of thyme alongside to repel insects. A mixture of boiled onion and garlic sprayed on the plants will also deter bugs. To control root maggots, spread wood ashes around each plant, digging some into the ground at the roots; replace the ash after heavy rains until maggot season is over at the end of June.

Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts (
Brassica oleracea gemmifera
) are curious plants that grow 2 to 4 feet tall and are available in green or purple varieties. What are essentially little cabbage-type heads grow all around a stout stem that is crowned with a shock of leaves, making the plant look like a mini palm tree. Brussels sprouts are sweetest after they’ve been through several light frosts and are generally planted to mature throughout fall and winter.

PLANTING:
In an area of full sun, prepare a very fertile soil to sustain the plants over their very long growing and harvest season. Sow seed ¼ to ½ inch deep and 3 inches apart directly into the garden in late spring. Transplants may be started indoors 6 to 8 weeks before setting out in the garden. Thin or space plants 14 to 18 inches apart in rows that are 30 inches apart. 65 to 110 days to maturity.

HARVESTING:
Sprouts grow close-packed on the plant’s main stem at the base of each leaf, maturing from the bottom of the stem up. Temperate-zone plants may produce until Thanksgiving; in milder climates they can be harvested all winter. Harvest the lowest sprouts when they are just ½ inch wide on up to full-sized at 1 to 1½ inches across by gently twisting the sprout free from the stem; larger sprouts become yellow and tough. Be careful not to damage the plant, and 2 or 3 smaller sprouts may regrow where you picked the first. Once harvesting begins, snap off the leaves halfway up the plant, beginning at the bottom, to encourage the plant to grow taller and more productive.

Chinese cabbage

Chinese cabbage (
Brassica rapa
) is more closely related to mustard than to cabbage. The varieties are grown, stored, and prepared much like cabbage. Chinese cabbage has a milder taste and more delicate texture and is more digestible than regular cabbage, a fact appreciated by many people. Chinese cabbage may be divided into heading and nonheading types: Chinese celery cabbage, nappa cabbage, and
wong bok
are heading varieties; nonheading varieties include bok choy, Chinese mustard cabbage, and pak choi, which are similar to Swiss chard, with loosely bunching green leaves and a thick midrib.

PLANTING:
Prepare a light, well-drained soil and sow seed ¼ to ½ inch deep and 2 inches apart in rows that are 30 inches apart. Thin when plants are 3 inches high, 4 weeks old, or have 5 true leaves. Thin nonheading types to 9 inches, heading types to 12 to 15 inches apart. Plants must never dry out during the growing season and are best irrigated at ground level to discourage disease and rot.

Spring crops do better where summers are cool, with transplants started indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost date and set out 1 month later; growth will be stunted and the plants will likely bolt if transplanted after 1 month. Chinese cabbage grows best when days are becoming shorter and temperatures are cooling. Plants are hardy to 20°F, and many gardeners skip the spring crop and instead plant in late July or early August (about 12 weeks before first frost date) for a fall harvest that will hold in the garden long into winter. 70 to 85 days to maturity.

HARVESTING:
You can harvest Chinese cabbage at any age; however, some varieties taste best after frost. Pull the entire plant to harvest heading types; do the same for nonheading varieties or just remove the outer leaves, leaving at least 5 leaves at the center of the plant to size up and mature.

Kale

Kale (
Brassica oleracea
var.
acephala
) handles cold and heat quite well and can be raised from the Deep South to Alaska. These resemble a frilly, headless cabbage that you harvest leaf by leaf. It’s likely to be the hardiest vegetable you’ve ever raised and will withstand even Midwestern winters, sweetening in flavor with cold temperatures. Russian kale (
B. oleracea
var.
fimbriata
), actually a cousin to the rutabaga, has looser, often reddish-tinted leaves. Russian kale prefers to be directly sown in the garden and although less winter hardy is sweeter in warm weather. Collards (
B. oleracea
var.
acephala
), a form of kale, are a traditional southern food and nearly the only brassica that thrives in the South, where they are easy to grow and disease-free.

PLANTING:
In the South collards and kale are planted from July to November for harvest during the fall and winter. Transplants can be started indoors in late winter, to be set out as soon as the ground can be worked in spring for an early crop before summer heat sets in. Many northern gardeners don’t bother planting kale in the spring, preferring to use the space to grow early peas or lettuces. Once those crops are harvested, a midsummer planting of kale, as much as 40 days before your frost-free date, will yield plants that produce over the fall and winter.

Sow seed directly in the garden ½ inch deep and 1 inch apart; thin young plants to 6 to 12 inches apart, working up to 18- to 24-inch spacing for mature plants. Begin transplants indoors 5 to 7 weeks before setting out into the garden. Adequate summer water is necessary for plants to withstand heat. Days to maturity: kale 55 to 70; collards 85.

HARVESTING:
You can harvest individual leaves as you need them, leaving the plants to generously produce more. Very cold weather will slow growth and cause the outer leaves to toughen, but they will protect the tender inner leaves. Kale will start to grow again in the spring, offering a final harvest before flowering and going to seed.

Mizuna

Mizuna (
Brassica rapa
var.
japonica
), also known as
kyona
, is a relatively mild-flavored mustard green with attractive, feathery foliage that is not usually bothered by pests.
(See Rocket/arugula entry for planting and harvesting information.)

Mustard

Mustard (
Brassica juncea
), also called mustard greens or mustard spinach, is stronger in taste and tougher in texture than spinach and chard with a biting hot flavor that is less pronounced when grown in cool weather.
(See Rocket/arugula entry for planting and harvesting information.)

Rocket/arugula

Rocket/arugula (
Eruca sativa
), also called garden rocket and Mediterranean salad, can and will germinate in the very wettest, coldest spring soils. Rocket seems to pop out of the ground and up in a flash, just like its name.

PLANTING:
Prepare a fertile soil and sow seed directly in the garden ¼ to ½ inch deep as early as February or March; rocket is a particularly good candidate for broadcast sowing for an early cut-and-come-again harvest. Seeds of these spicy greens will germinate rapidly and mature in 35 to 45 days. For a steady supply of the most tender leaves, it’s best if you plant a few seeds every week and keep picking for a constant supply of flavorful, young plants. These cool-season greens are all prone to spring bolting and turn tough and bitter in warm weather. Allow plants to self sow or replant seed in fall for a second growing season.

HARVESTING:
Cut when the leaves are 4 to 6 inches long, as larger leaves toughen and become spicy-hot. The plants will bolt as soon as long days trigger them to do so. Fall-planted mustard greens will stand through light frosts and improve in flavor.

SPINACH AND OTHER RICH GREENS

Corn salad

Corn salad (
Valerianella locusta
)—also called lamb’s lettuce,
fetticus
, and
mache
—is a small, flat, ground-hugging plant with oval or round leaves that have a very mild, sweet flavor. Corn salad is a special treasure in the winter, as it is one of the few delicate-tasting greens you can harvest from your garden between late December and April.

PLANTING:
Sow ½ inch deep, plant generously to allow for what can be spotty germination, and thin to 3 or 4 inches between plants. If you live in a cool-summer area, you can succession-plant from spring through fall. In a hot-summer area, you can manage a summer crop by planting corn salad where it will receive afternoon shade, or plant August through September for a fall crop. Seed broadcast over the bare garden when you are doing fall cleanup will germinate with the fall rains, winter in a small rosette, and finish growing in spring. 40 to 50 days to maturity or fall sown for a spring crop.

HARVESTING:
Pick (don’t cut) individual leaves as they size up, or harvest an entire plant at once. Handle the leaves gently so as not to bruise them, and they will keep for a week in the refrigerator.

Spinach

Spinach (
Spinacia oleracea
) is one of the earliest spring green crops in the garden. Its delicious, mild leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals and ready for harvest weeks before chard. However, with long days and warm, dry conditions spinach quickly bolts and goes to seed, putting an abrupt end to its harvest.

PLANTING:
Plant seed ¼ inch deep directly in the garden, thinning to an eventual 12-inch spacing between individual plants. Spinach can be slow to germinate, so a sprinkling of fast-sprouting radish seed will help to mark the planting area. Where spring quickly gives way to warm weather, plant spinach in partial shade to help prolong the harvest. 65 days to maturity.

HARVESTING:
Clip using a cut-and-come-again method, harvesting individual leaves from the outside of plants, allowing the inner leaves to continue to develop.

Swiss chard

Swiss chard (
Beta vulgaris cicla
) is botanically a beet with an undeveloped root and delicious leaves. The remarkably beautiful Rainbow chard has become an ornamental favorite as well as a vegetable garden staple. Gardeners in the hot interior United States favor it in the summer garden because it doesn’t bolt the way spinach does. You can also plant it early because it is as hardy against spring frosts as it is against summer heat. Maritime gardeners plant a second crop in July for harvest beginning in the fall and going on through winter.