Time to get seeds going for edible greens

Spring greens

February 27, 2021

Greens thrive in the cool temperatures of spring.  To get a jump on spring salads, start seeds indoors now for arugula, celery, chicories (endive, cultivated dandelions, radicchio), collards, cress, kale, lettuce, mache, miner's lettuce, mustard greens, orach, pac choi, parsley, purslane, salad burnet, sorrels, spinach, sprouting broccoli and Swiss Chard.  

Spring is my favorite time of year.  Everything turns green and the air has that earthy smell.  Now is a great time to get a jump on spring salads by starting seeds indoors and for the extra hardy varieties, directly in the garden.

Since you are harvesting the leaves, you want a soil rich in organic matter, nitrogen to fuel the leaf growth and a pH between 6-7.  Add an inch of compost to your garden before planting and a side dressing of fertilizer when planting outdoors.  

As a general rule, you typically plant a seed at twice as deep as it is.  Here are the seed depths by variety:

1/8" depth: Arugula, celery, cress, lettuce, salad burnet 

1/4" depth: Chicories, collards, sprouting broccoli, kale, miner's lettuce, mustards, orach, pac choi, parsley, purslane, sorrels 

1/2" depth: Spinach, Swiss chard 

For the smaller plants like mache and spinach, I space 6" apart if direct sowing or when transplanting.  For the larger plants, 12" spacing is what I use.

Hardy greens started outdoors

I also direct sow greens seeds in my portable greenhouses outdoors.  You can even direct sow orach and spinach in the garden with no cover right now.  To keep yourself in salads into summer, practice succession sowing.  Sow seeds every 3 weeks so as one crop is harvested, you have another ready.

Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!

After transplanting, be sure to keep even moisture.  You likely will not need to water until May as the spring rains keep the soil moist.  Once the temperatures start hitting the upper 70's and 80's, greens will turn bitter if also in dry soil.

For more on growing greens, see Growing fabulous lettuce and greens.