Amaranth
2-2-12, 10:46am
Leafy Greens Garden Challenge
Our state is participating in a yearlong challenge to grow and eat more Leafy Greens. This can include a wide variety of foods such as spinach, radish greens, collards, celery, cabbages, purslane, bok choy, parsley, New Zealand spinach, salad mix, and amaranth:D. It wouldn’t include things like green beans or green peppers. And they don’t have to be totally green either. Different colored lettuces, multicolored Swiss Chard, or red mustard could be included as well.
In our demo garden we’d like to include at least 30 different items and would like suggestions about what to include from a garden skills perspective. We are trying to plan it from several different angles. We can grow most spring, summer, and fall greens in our area. Most of the areas are Zone 6 and 7.
1) What favorites do you think should especially be included?
2) What lesser known greens would you like to see more people know about?
3) What exotic ones might be fun to try?
4) What greens popular in other countries and various ethnic cuisines would we like to grow if we knew about them?
5) What plants would round out or stretch the gardener’s skills?
6) What varieties would you recommend? For example beyond the basic green kale, we already are thinking to include lacinato kale.
And then we’d like to point people toward ways of growing them effectively. To help with that, we’d like to do a list of helpful garden books and websites. So if a book includes info on a good spectrum of greens or focuses on greens from a particular region/country/cuisine we’d like to include those.
If you also have thoughts about what to include to stretch the cook’s repertoire or add to the eater’s experiences , there is a related post in the Food section of the forum.
Our state is participating in a yearlong challenge to grow and eat more Leafy Greens. This can include a wide variety of foods such as spinach, radish greens, collards, celery, cabbages, purslane, bok choy, parsley, New Zealand spinach, salad mix, and amaranth:D. It wouldn’t include things like green beans or green peppers. And they don’t have to be totally green either. Different colored lettuces, multicolored Swiss Chard, or red mustard could be included as well.
In our demo garden we’d like to include at least 30 different items and would like suggestions about what to include from a garden skills perspective. We are trying to plan it from several different angles. We can grow most spring, summer, and fall greens in our area. Most of the areas are Zone 6 and 7.
1) What favorites do you think should especially be included?
2) What lesser known greens would you like to see more people know about?
3) What exotic ones might be fun to try?
4) What greens popular in other countries and various ethnic cuisines would we like to grow if we knew about them?
5) What plants would round out or stretch the gardener’s skills?
6) What varieties would you recommend? For example beyond the basic green kale, we already are thinking to include lacinato kale.
And then we’d like to point people toward ways of growing them effectively. To help with that, we’d like to do a list of helpful garden books and websites. So if a book includes info on a good spectrum of greens or focuses on greens from a particular region/country/cuisine we’d like to include those.
If you also have thoughts about what to include to stretch the cook’s repertoire or add to the eater’s experiences , there is a related post in the Food section of the forum.