Find out what Unusual winter greens you can plant

Seeds specifically for winter have been purchased from realseeds.co.uk with money you have donated. The seed company encourage seed saving and offer hints and tips on how to do it. Their go-to seed-saving “bible” is Back Garden Seed Saving: Keeping Our Vegetable Heritage Alive. by Sue Stickland. A second hand copy is winging it’s way as I write…..

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The seeds purchased include some interesting cool weather lettuces and some oriental greens;Hhere are a few that sounded interesting:

Australian Yellow leaf – A very large open-headed lettuce, with bright, bright green-yellow leaves that are gently frilled. Good flavour and crunchy texture. Very decorative, and slow to bolt. It makes huge lettuces – you only need three or four to keep you in salads for ages.

Winter marvel – It is a traditional French variety chosen specifically for sowing in late summer and early autumn. It is quite hardy and will do very nicely in an unheated polytunnel or greenhouse, providing salads in winter and spring when they’re most appreciated.

“Komatsuna” Japanese Green – is an incredibly versatile green from Japan and Korea with leaves used as a cooking leaf like Kale or Chard, or used raw in salads. It is delicious, cold tolerant and easy to grow all year

Mizuna (and Red Mizuna) – One of the simplest oriental greens, and gives a very rapid return from a small space. An excellent salad crop, tolerant of both hot and cold weather – with a good texture and flavour.

Mibuna – A quick and ridiculously easily-grown salad for cooler weather. Big bunches of narrow oval leaves which you can just pick by the handful.  Productive and easy to grow, and also tasty cooked.

“70 Days Improved” Choy Sum This variety from China is chosen for its darker green leaves and flowering shoots that are great cooked or raw. The whole plant is edible – harvest flower shoots and leaves all in a bunch when it starts to flower

There are the usual British winter greens of Claytona, Purslane and lambs lettuce

Fava beans from the latin name “Vicia faba” are broad beans. Field beans are broad beans used by farmers to fix nitrogen and the tops used as a feedstock. The beans are smaller that “cultivated” broad beans but taste just the same. They are winter hardy so they’ve been included in the sowings.