THE MOMENT has arrived to sow the saladings — an old-fashioned but excellent word to describe leafy salad plants — that will keep the bowl filled through autumn and into winter. Indeed, many saladings need the shorter day length and prefer the cooler temperatures of the second half of the year. Some lettuces and most of the chicories are at their best when cool night time temperatures force colour changes and firm up flavour.
Butterhead lettuce The variety ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’ comes into its own out of doors in the late summer/early autumn. The deep bronze outer leaves make way for a creamy pale green and yellow interior with the odd fleck of red. Very tasty if the butterhead texture is your thing.
Cos lettuce The crispy cos-type ‘Little Gem’ can be grown outside throughout the year with a little protection from a bell cloche or some horticultural fleece draped over hoops to protect against the worst of the winter frosts. ‘Winter Density’ is another dwarf cos that is hardier still. Sow both butterhead and cos types in modules and plant out when large enough.
Chicories The most important chicory is the radicchio ‘Palla Rossa’ which produces a tight red cricket ball in late autumn. Until recently, radicchio, along with corn salad (lamb’s lettuce or mâche) and curly endive, were the preserve of our continental cousins, but now we Britons have developed a taste for radicchio’s slightly bitter edge. It requires the same treatment as lettuce in its sowing and general cultivation but must be left in the ground until the hearts have hardened before being harvested. It is hardy but will not stand much frost or rain.
With mild autumns being the pattern in recent years it may not be too late to sow root chicories for forcing. This is a very satisfying gardening technique, especially as it can produce wonderful results. The pointed-leaf chicory ‘Rossa di Treviso’ and the more common ‘Witloof’ or Belgian chicory can be sown outside now and thinned to 6in (15cm) between plants. The thinnings can be added to the salad bowl. In the late autumn or early winter when the foliage is looking tatty, dig up the long parsnip-like root. Cut off what remains of the foliage an inch above the top of the root and stand three or four roots a few inches apart in a large pot or bucket filled with soil, leaving the tops protruding. Water them in. Now put another pot or bucket over the top to exclude all light. Put the pots in a warm dry place, between 50-60C, and in three to four weeks you will find new growths or “chicons” which are sweet and succulent. Harvest, replace the top and wait for a second and even a third crop.
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Endive The curly endive ‘Wallonne’ is particularly suited to early autumn production. Sow and cultivate as for lettuce but thin to 9in (22cm). It is a self- blanching type, but the frizzy hearts will harvest whiter still if you bunch all the leaves together once fully grown and tie string round the whole lot. The same is true of the variety ‘Pancalieri’. As the autumn progresses, and the rains increase, rotting can be a problem so leave tied endive for no more than a fortnight.
Mizuna Mizuna, whether fine or broad-leaved, is fairly hardy, so keep sowing until late autumn, three seeds to a module and plant out when big enough. Harvest by the “cut and come again method”. Cut the whole plant an inch above the ground.
Mustard greens Giant Red Mustard is at home in the cooler autumn temperatures, as is the green mustard plant Green in the Snow. Sow both in modules, as for mizuna, but do harvest when young, particularly the latter which gets very fiery as it matures.
Winter purslane (Miner’s lettuce or Claytonia). A rosette-forming plant with small, thick and succulent leaves. Sow a pinch in a short row, but watch that you don’t sow too many — the seeds are minute. Pick leaves individually or harvest the whole plant.
Land cress Another hardy green which makes a rosette like corn salad. Bigger than the nuisance weed hairy bittercress, it is worth sowing a pinch and thinning out to 3in-4in between plants.
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Corn salad This salad fares well through autumn and winter but is a slow grower. Direct sow in the ground or raise in modules. Thin to 3in-4in between plants.
Rocket Sow another pinch in a short row to keep regular supplies coming through the autumn. Flowers are edible.
Mixed leaf packets These often contain rocket, which outstrips the lettuce and corn salad, which get crowded out. For even growth of different salad leaves, lettuce, chicory and endive, try Mesclun 2 from Simpson’s Seeds.
SUPPLIERS
Suffolk Herbs, Monks Farm, Kelvedon, Colchester, Essex (01376 572456; www.suffolkherbs.com). Simpson’s Seeds, The Walled Garden Nursery, Horningsham, Warminster, Wiltshire (01985 845004).
Tamar Organics (01822 834284).