Oriental Leaves
These leafy vegetables are becoming popular in our garden for autumn and winter harvests. From the brassica family, they tolerate our colder months. Quick growing (ready in 60-90 days) and nutritious, they can be used raw in salads, cooked in stir fries or used in kimchi and other Asian recipes.
Pak choi (bok choy), tatsoi, and choi sum
Spoon shaped leaves
Crisp light green leaves, barrel shaped head.
Mustard greens, mizuna, chopsuey greens are all individual leafy green varieties
Kailaan Kich (Chinese broccoli)
Tender flowering stems
Sow the seed directly where you want it to grow and the thin to the required spacing. This helps avoid bolting which can be triggered by transplanting during hot weather and fluctuating moisture levels in the soil.
The leafy greens are attractive to flying pests so to keep them pristine cover with fine mesh or fleece. A banquet too for slugs and snails when the wet weather sets in.
Chinese cabbage varieties can tolerate some level of clubroot infection without significant yield loss. Clubroot is a soilborne disease that affects brassicas. Even with resistant varieties, good hygiene practices can help minimize the impact of clubroot.
Also popular as salad mixes which can be grown indoors, these flavoursome leaves can provide a quick growing alternative to lettuce or as an addition to your salad bowl.