Green Energy We Can All Get Behind

It’s time to start planting greens.

They’re some of the most healthy vegetables you can eat. Leafy greens are nutrient dense yet low in calories. They’re so popular among health enthusiasts that companies market powders made from greens that you can mix with water and drink. Just google “greens” and you will see advertisements for these expensive products.

Just grow some and eat them. They’re delicious.

The high priests of horticulture at Texas A&M University recommend Sept. 1 or thereabouts as the ideal time to plant most leafy greens in this part of Texas. Nurseries and garden centers are starting to stock transplants of collard greens, mustard, kale and the like. But you can also grow them from seed, which I prefer. You can find so many more varieties if you plant from seed rather than transplants.

Here are some of my favorites:

Collard Greens and Kale Collards and kale are probably the two most popular types of leafy greens. Personally, I prefer kale to collards. Both are incredibly hardy plants that can survive extreme cold (especially kale) and unseasonably warm weather. My favorite variety is Red Russian kale. I grew it in 2021 and the winter storm of that year didn’t even faze it.

Mustard Greens

I love the spicy taste of mustard greens. They come in an amazing variety of foliage patterns as well. Many come from the Far East, like mizuna and mibuna – two of my favorites. Last year I grew a variety called “Chinese Giant Leaf.” The leaves really are giant – two or three feet long and a foot and a half wide. This variety is quite mild for a mustard green. You could even use it as a salad green. Japanese Red Mustard is also a favorite of mine. It is quite spicy, however. But the foliage is a beautiful reddish purple that I just love seeing in the garden.

Bok Choy and Tatsoi

These Asian greens are members of the cabbage family. Bok choy and its relatives produce dark leaves perched atop edible stems that are typically white, but sometimes light green. They tend to posses a very mild mustard flavor. Tatsoi, sometimes called “Vitamin Green” for its healthful properties, grows more low to the ground in a rosette fashion. It grows quite well in our climate. It may be one of the tastiest greens, in my opinion.

All of the greens discussed above are members of the cruciferous family of vegetables. They’re related to cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. There are a few other greens outside of this family that I also enjoy growing and eating Swiss Chard

These plants are closely related to beets, and more distantly, to spinach. Folks often want to grow the colorful varieties of Swiss Chard – the ones with red, yellow, orange and pink stems. In my experience, those do not grow as well here as the varieties with white or green stems. I’m growing an Italian green-stemed variety that has survived throughout the summer. I haven’t harvested it at all this summer because it looks like its barely clinging to life. But it has survived, and I expect it to bounce back now that the temperatures are dropping. Swiss Chard is a biennial plant, meaning it can grow for two years before bolting to seed.

Spinach

Spinachdoesnotlikethehot weather. It easily bolts to seed if it gets too hot. I won’t plant any until later in the fall, when it really cools off. “Bloomsdale” is an old fashioned variety that grows well here.

Lettuce

I’ll probably start sowing some lettuce seed later this month or early next month. I prefer colorful varieties. I always try different types. Like spinach, lettuce hates the hot weather, too. Lettuce is super easy to grow from seed. Just don’t plant it too deeply. According to some gardening lore that I’ve been told, white-seeded varieties should be planted on top of the surface and watered in, while black-seeded should be slightly scratched into the soil.

Endive/Escarole/Radicchio

These plants sort of resemble lettuce. They possess a lovely mild bitterness that, honestly, might be an acquired taste. Some varieties form a head, while others grow in a more loose-leaf fashion. My favorites are the Italian varieties known as Radicchio. They grow into a head. I often prepare them by cutting in half lengthwise, seasoning with olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar, and then grilling over hot coals. It’s a luxurious side dish.