6 months of winter harvests from one sowing - salad leaves in unheated structures

Six months of continuous harvests of salad leaves under cover in winter, from plants sown at precise times according to climate and latitude. This is a maritime temperate climate, USDA zone 8, 51N latitude. It's 27th February after a winter of frosts to -6 or -7C, around 20F.

See how you can maximise the quantity and regularity of harvests, from plants which are then able to live all winter and into spring. I show you my methods of picking not cutting, explain how we water only occasionally in mid-winter, and the importance of continual ventilation.

00:00 Intro, what can you grow in the winter
00:34 Experience of growing salad in 1983 - hearts of soft lettuce
01:05 Flavours of salad leaves
01:45 I start to grow different types in the 80s
02:00 Experience of growing salad in France in 1983 - Grenoble Red and Scarole endive, appreciation of bitter leaves
03:05 Starting to produce salad bags in 2003, a revelation as producer
03:50 Problems with selling head lettuce - slugs
04:29 Growing salad leaves in a box of compost, above ground
06:20 Showing polytunnel salads in winter
07:55 Red Frills/ Lace mustard
08:23 Brassica salad plants - sowing and cropping
08:48 Amsoi mustard
09:05 Growing the same lettuce for hearting - Grenoble Red
09:36 Chervil - picking not cutting
10:26 Broad bean leaves and pea shoots for flavour
10:53 Effects of low temperatures on plants
11:25 Other plants growing in the polytunnel - Scarole and Frisee endive, salad rocket, Claytonia/winter purslane, land cress, chard and beet
12:30 Garlic as a ‘free crop’
13:16 Charles picking leaves from polytunnel
14:38 Showing selection of leaves picked
15:07 Demonstrating how to rinse and prepare leaves, with descriptions of varieties
16:59 Reviving wilted leaves by rinsing in cold water
17:45 Bagging up the leaves with moisture
19:09 Reminder of sowing months

See me growing the same winter salad plants in the same place, seven years earlier in March 2014.    • Salad leaves through winter  

Learn more about skills for growing plants like this, and sowing dates, with this offer on my new book, Skills for Growing, and calendar of sowing dates: https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/...

I have written a book exclusively about growing salad leaves all year https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/...

To buy my collections of super informative video garden guides with an encyclopaedic search function, visit Retrieve with whom we partner https://charlesdowding.retrieve.com/s...

We replaced the 18x30ft polytunnel in May 2019 after the polythene split, and the new18x42ft / 5.5x13m polytunnel is from First Tunnels UK https://www.firsttunnels.co.uk/domest...
The 12x25ft / 3.6x7.7m greenhouse is from Woodpecker Joinery UK https://www.woodpecker-joinery.co.uk/...

Filmed on 27th February 2021 by Edward Dowding, my son, at Homeacres in Somerset UK.
My no dig garden is 1300sqm / one third acre and supplies local shops, restaurants and neighbours with salad leaves mostly, some vegetables too. One of the shops is Spar in Bruton.

Learn more about no dig growing and how to sow, plant, water and harvest vegetables like this through my range of online courses, from the website https://charlesdowding.co.uk/my-courses/

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