Kitchen Garden Forum

In the summer I usually sow a few rows of mixed seed - lettuce, chicory, endive - to produce little salad leaves. This year due to a combination of bad back and lack of space I never got round to it. One of the things I usually sow is this mix



I decided to start exploring "micro leaves" as described in Charles Dowding's excellent book Salad Leaves for all Seasons

I sowed a half seed tray fairly thickly with old seed on 10 August and by yesterday (13 September) they had grown to this:



Cut leaves with scissors for lunch in a mixed leaf salad. Plenty left, and cut plants should regrow.

All I need now is the discipline to sow sucessionally into the winter.

Morning Alan, this is an area i must really break into, with a large greenhouse, and a little more spare time in the winter, it's really rather stupid of me not to try.

This is something we are planning for over winter using our growing light in a spare room.

I've been doing this for the last few years in the greenhouse. I use a selection of types including endive, AYR, and lollo rosso and just sprinkle a few seeds on some compost in a pot every few weeks till the end of September. They survived -18 last winter and got going again once things started to warm up in spring. I also overwinter spring onions in the greenhouse in containers so that we always have something fresh to eat...even when the ground is frozen like concrete and the plants outside are buried under snow.

Hi sc

You inspire me to be more organised and sow more in succession over the coming weeks.

What is AYR?

alan

My guess is that it's All Year Round?