Sow seeds for leafy greens next week after the dark of the moon on Tuesday 5th February 2019.
Best days – arvo Wednesday 6th through to Friday 8th February 2019, then again from Monday pm 11th and Tuesday 12th February 2019 [here in New Zealand].
This is a challenging time to grow leafy greens – through summer heat and humidity. Partial shade and constant water supply help them grow leaves rather than bolt to seed.
If you do plant, heat-lovers are good. Cool-loving lettuce, spinach, coriander [cilantro] take more care and attention at this time – can you give it to them now?
Leafy greens are best in semi-shade now as they bolt to seed in strong sun and dry soil.
They need constant moisture to stay tender [Auckland is really helping there with all the rain we’ve had!]. I keep a watch on soil moisture around them [I poke a finger into the soil and feel if its moist or not].
It’s good to sow new batches often so there are more growing leaves when previous crops are making flowers and seeds instead.
If you do sow seeds, choose from
- Lettuce – I’ve spread around seed-heads from a number of summer varieties so hopefully some will do well no matter what the weather does now – hot/dry/wet. In shade as well as some sunnier beds.
- Silver-beet [including rainbow chard/ bright light beets – the ones with vibrant colored stems – so stunning to see in a garden] These are self-seeding around the garden at present. Even perpetual beet [which is coarser to us but withstands rust and mold better than traditional forms so we grow some of each.
- Rocket [Arugula] – the perennial version which is stronger tasting, and has finely divided leaves. It seems to survive the heat better, in fact, it has prospered this year.
- Asian greens – maybe mizuna. Haven’t grown so well this summer, so maybe more success soon.
- New Zealand Spinach – ours is self-seeding so I’ll look see if there are little, new ones growing. It’s OK cooked [needs 2 changes of boiling water to draw out and minimize the oxalic acid content – in the same way that adult forms of true spinach and silver-beet also need]
Still time to plant hot-climate ‘greens’ including:
- Basil
- Magenta Spreen [Chenopodium giganteum] – see Wikipedia for more info
Amaranth [we like Mekong Red = Amaranthus tricolor] – see Wikipedia for more info
Orach [Atriplex hortensis] – see Wikipedia for more info
All grow more strongly in warmer weather than do lettuce or silver-beet. Most also grow far taller than lettuce. Do some research. Have a go with something different too.
Cilantro I find too quick to bolt to seed at this time.
Summer is a challenging time to have traditional leafy greens grow well – they need some care.
Best wishes and enjoy the warm weather and your garden!
Heather
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PS:
For more about planting by the moon phases,
If you like experiments about when to plant for best results, a great one is to plant the same seeds in rows right beside each other [so all other conditions are identical], and label the rows with the date of planting. Then sow seeds from 1 packet at weekly intervals, each week in a new row.
This way you can see how the recommendations for best/worst seed sowing outcomes from moon-planting guides work for you. Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t.
I enjoy experimenting with such ideas – and if only I can rescue the rows from the snails and black-birds, I might even get some results to share!
Here’s a post I wrote about planting by the moon phases if you like more information and reflections on it.
Moon planting guides remind me to plant SOMETHING, plan a little, and help me have a continuous supply!
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