Arugula Flowers

I plant arugula in the fall in every cold frame I can. Sometimes it languishes during the winter, but when it really gets going in the spring, it really gets going.   

I generally let them bolt and go to seed because they self sow nicely and will come up in every nook and cranny and shady spot in the garden - and we eat it all.  

Arugula is in the Cruciferae family - you can tell by the flowers: four petals in a cross shape. [Cresses and mustard are, too.]  They are a part of the brassica family and the only brassica that I can grow reliably without cabbage worms bothering them.   We've never seen a single cabbage worm on them ever.  

I like the flowers.  They're pretty and just as tasty as the leaves in salads. 

Arugula

Arugula is one of our favorite greens.   It grows like crazy here and self seeds readily.   In mild winters, it stays good enough to harvest through the whole cold season.  

We planted this in the fall in a cold frame and it died way back when the temps fell to the minus teens.   However, once the days start to lengthen and the temps warm up a bit, it greens right up and soon will be big enough to start harvesting.

In the meantime, now's a great time to plant a few more rows for harvesting later in the spring.  If it bolts in the heat, let it go to seed and you'll find another row of it when the weather cools in August and September.

Cold Frame Greens Update

I planted greens in the cold frame in September, then left them alone until October - except to keep the cats out.   We covered it when we started getting regular frosts and I just opened it up to check on things last week.

Look!!   Greens!!   Big enough to eat!!

That's a lovely bed of arugula in this pic.  


And our bib lettuce is looking great, too.   Both types of greens do well in cool temps under cover.   The arugula stays nice and mild and the lettuce is very crisp.   

I also planted spinach [again] but apparently it doesn't like my sandy soil.   [I use a lot of sand to amend our solid clay.]   I got two whole plants out of the 4 little rows I planted.   I'm giving up spinach for a while and focusing on what does grow. 

Winter Cold Frame

This is the inside of one of the cold frames on Christmas day.    To the front of the pic are a couple of rows of radishes.  

You'll notice that I didn't plant them too close together this year, so they actually had room to grow nice radishes.    Yay, Robin!    

In the center is a row of cilantro and in the back of the pic are a couple of rows of arugula.    All doing very nicely.   


Here's a view of one of those gorgeous radishes that had enough room to grow this year because I was smart enough [finally!] to only plant the seeds every 2 inches.  

Pretty!

What you don't see is the row of fennel that I pulled up and made into a fennel gratin for Christmas dinner.   Mmmmm.