Leafy greens for the spring garden

In last week’s column were favorite root crops for the spring garden. In today’s column we’ll look at favorite leafy green crops. Because spring greens are cool-season crops, the optimum temperature for germination is in cool soils, less than 50°F.

Spinach. Spinach can be direct sown into the garden and do well when transplanted at an early stage of growth with one set of true leaves. There are three types of spinach: smooth-leafed, savoy-leafed, and arrowhead:

• Smooth-leafed types are the types usually found in the grocers. Varieties have medium dark green leaves, smooth rounded to oval leaf blades with upright growth habit. Heat tolerant varieties are available.

• Savoy-leafed types are a gardener’s delight. Savoy leaves are crinkly, thicker, and often darker green than smooth-leafed types. Savoy-leafed spinach is rarely marketed in grocers since fine soil particles are difficult to clean. Home gardeners do not have this constraint and may enjoy the savoy types.

• Arrowhead types are Asian types that have leaves shaped like an arrow borne on long stems.

Lettuce. Lettuces that perform best in our area are leaf lettuces, but try several types and decide which type fits your garden. Plant seed directly into the garden as lettuce does not do well when transplanted. There are hundreds of varieties of lettuce of different kinds, textures, and shapes. Listed here are some of the major types:

• Oakleaf. Green and red oakleaf types have an open head with fine, thin leaves that take the shape of a bowl.

• Romaine. Green and red Romaine lettuces have thick leaves that form a compact, upright, head with intense coloration; may be tall or are mini heads.

• Bibb varieties have large, ruffled outer leaves that enfold a soft loose head; may have red or the more common green leaves.

• Butterhead types have broad, dense heads, leaves of bright green or red.

• Iceberg is the usual compact, round, dense head, with darker green outer leaves and blanched interior leaves.

• French crisp or Batavia types have loose heads when young and mature into a dense head, leaves are sweet, wavy in shape.

• Lollo. Leaves are frilly and shaped like a fan, dark green or dark maroon in color.

For a continuous supply of greens ,sow new plantings every two weeks.

Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.