Extend your salad days
It may have turned cooler but here’s how to enjoy veg from the garden for months
Your plants and garden might be shutting up shop for the winter but there is no excuse for letting your vegetable patch go dormant. There are some wonderful winter veggies that can help keep your kitchen going with fresh and tasty treats throughout the colder months.
And there are other varieties that you’ll need to plant now for cropping in the spring and summer.
To get you started, here are my fabulous four winter favourites: Garlic, onions, lettuce and spinach. All should be available in garden centres now.
Before we start, all four thrive in a rich soil with plenty of organic matter such as compost mixed in. So, as ever, preparation is crucial.
Remove weeds and large stones, then add compost and rake the soil until you’ve created a lovely soft tilth ready for planting.
Let’s look at the root vegetables we can plant for harvesting next year.
LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Garlic is one of the most familiar items in our kitchens. And, great news, it’s simple to grow yourself and ideal for containers or pots by the back door.
“Hardneck” garlics will produce a flower stem that can be used in salads and stir fries, but “softneck” varieties will store for much longer. If you are planting in containers, plant the individual cloves at least 2.5cm below the surface in heavy soils and up to 6cm in lighter soils. Leave at least 10cm between each clove and from the container edge so that the bulbs can swell.
Garlic prefers full sun and well-drained soil and won’t tolerate water logging.
So make sure your pots have enough drainage holes and some gravel in the bottom to prevent them clogging up.
Use some netting to keep the plants safe from hungry birds. Know your onion Delicious onions are another one of our most-loved kitchen ingredients and are also great for growing over the winter.
The easiest way to grow is from baby onions called “sets”. Remove the loose skin at the top before planting (so that the birds can’t grab it) in a sunny but sheltered spot – again, like the garlic, in well-drained soil. Plant each set 2.5cm to 5cm deep, gently pushing it into the ground until its top is just below soil level, and then firm soil around them. Space the sets 10cm to 15cm apart within each row and keep your rows about 30cm apart.
Finally, add a good layer of mulch to the top. Water the soil a couple of times a week for the first two weeks and then don’t water again unless there is a prolonged drought. Your tasty onions should be ready to crop in late spring.
YEAR-ROUND SALAD
Now let’s look at a couple of salad crops that you can harvest all winter.
Crispy, fresh lettuce is amazing for salads and sandwiches and it really does taste better homegrown.
Fortunately for lettuce lovers, there are some fantastic winter varieties. You’ll want as sheltered and sunny a spot as possible for this particular winter vegetable. Their growth will pause when frost hits, so a sunny spot will ensure they get going quicker once it warms up again.
In most parts of the UK you’ll need a horticultural fleece or cloche to get the best harvest through the worst of the cold snaps.
Rake the soil down to a fine tilth then sow winter lettuces in rows spaced 30cm apart. To get a nice straight row, tie a string between two pegs and run a stick or cane along it to mark out drills around 1cm deep.
Sow the seeds in thinly and then pinch it shut, gently tamp it down and water thoroughly.
Another great winter salad crop is spinach. It’s so versatile – you can throw it in salads or cook it into curries, pastas or casseroles. It really is one of my favourite ingredients. And it is highly nutritious too. To sow, make drills exactly like the lettuces. If you’re going to pick the leaves early when they are small then you don’t need to thin them out, but if you want larger leaves then don’t pack them too close – at least 7.5cm apart.
Good air circulation will prevent mildew, which is a common problem with spinach. Gently cover them with a rake. Spinach will need protection after October with a cloche, fleece or cold box and you’ll need to keep them well watered when there’s no rain.
If the soil dries out, the spinach will go to seed very quickly and then it will turn bitter. Putting some compost around the plants once they are growing will act as mulch and help retain moisture in the soil.
Once growing, they will need protection from slugs and snails, as well as from pigeons, so think about what measures you are happy to use. Then get ready for winter flavour.