Tag Archives: endive

How to have a really early square foot garden

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Or any garden for that matter. This is how I do it. I use many different kinds of containers but this one had 4 blueberry muffins from a local store. Clean it out and then poke holes in the top (6) and bottom (4). I use a screwdriver that’s been heated over a flame on the stove and then push it through the plastic. Make it easy!

I then fill with moistened potting mix. This container isn’t very deep so it will be used for salad greens type of crops. No root crops in this shallow of a container. I then seed fairly heavily so that when they come up I can separate them into individual starts to put into squares.

If it freezes, so what? If it snows, it doesn’t matter? These seeds know when it’s time to grow. As we get into the warmer months of late winter, take a peek every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t dry out. If it looks dry, just run some water over it and then cover again. 

These containers will develop a fair amount of condensation in them. Thats what you want. You’ve got it vented which lets excessive heat escape but it also keeps your soil moist. 

I have chard, radicchio, tatsoi, and endive in this container. 

Spring salad mix

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Hopefully you’re beginning to harvest the work you did in springtime. Its salad galore! This is a combination of 8 different greens, one of which is something I’ve grown for the first time: endive. I always associated it with the frilly, sharp, bitter, and what I would describe as unattractive in salads. But then I learned about the different kinds.

This variety was not bitter at all. Chicory’s have been a bit of a challenge for me to grow for this reason. I think it has to do with the season you try to grow them in. My radicchio variety was very tasty in the spring, but got bitter when I grew it in summer. The ones I grew later in the year returned to less bitter.

Regardless, it’s very tasty in this mixed salad. Add some fresh fruit, cheese, homemade croutons, candied nuts(sorry!),avocado, and a great blush vinaigrette and you’ll have yourself a great tasting salad for the evening. Fast, great tasting, easy, cheap, and very nutritions[ois skin=”1″]

Spring planting with vertical gardening in mind

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In years past I’ve planted my spring garden and put things wherever I wanted. When it became time to put in my summer vertical crops I often had to either wait for the existing squares to finish, which meant putting my tomatoes in a little late, or pull the plants which were in the square which hadn’t finished yet. For many years I’ve learned to put in the earliest crops where my vertical summer crops will grow.

What do you grow right now so your squares will be ready for summer vertical crops? All the cool weather crops: lettuce, spinach, chard, endive, kohlrabi, arugula, bok choi, mizuna, kale, even radicchio. etc. Radishes can go in later because they only take about 30 days. I know there will be 7 weeks until the summer crops go in, so this leaves me with time to grow all the things that love spring. Mel always taught to think one season ahead[ois skin=”1″]