Greens & herbs
Mustard greens
The winter braising green; curled types stand deepest into winter.
- Outside
- Direct Sep to Oct, again Feb
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Little and often; dry beds turn leaves hot
- Harvest
- Nov to Dec, then Mar
Care
- Water
- Little and often, the finger test deciding: steady, unbroken growth keeps the leaves mild, and a bed that swings dry turns them tough and overtly hot. Water the fall rows in the dry spells between fronts; winter rain takes over from December.
- Sow
- Direct sow a quarter to half inch deep, thick in a band, thinned by eating: the main round September into October, a second sowing in February. Keep the rows short and repeat what the kitchen uses; a whole bed at once is a glut with a deadline.
- Feed
- Compost in the row at sowing is the whole program for a quick leaf crop; skip the liquid feed. Extra nitrogen grows volume the kitchen cannot cut fast enough, and a green eaten young wants none of it.
- Ready
- Start cutting hand-sized leaves outside-in and the crown keeps working, or shear a row an inch high for tender regrowth. The fall sowing cuts into the winter greens season, and the curled varieties stand deepest into the cold weeks.
- Trouble
- The calendar is the trouble, as with every cool-season green here: a row that slips toward June turns fierce and bolts no matter how it is watered. Keep to the fall and February windows, and let the curled types carry the deep-winter end that beats the broadleaved ones.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 3–5 gal bag.
- Water
- A bag dries faster than a bed; check the top half inch and keep it evenly damp, because a checked bag plant turns hot and tough.
- Feed
- Compost at sowing is the whole program; a bag leaches with every watering, but a crop this quick never runs hungry.
- Sow
- The Texas guide's 1-gallon salad-greens class makes a 3 to 5 gallon bag generous; sow a band across the bag and thin by eating. The fall round is the easy bag crop, like the radish succession.
Mustard greens are the winter pot-liquor green here: sown into the fall and again in February, with the curled types standing deepest into the cold.
Growing
A staple of Southern cooking that short-season gardens squeeze into a fast spring, mustard lands here on the county's fall and February lists, one more crop the winter greens season takes in stride. The state greens sheet splits the family by cold: curled mustard stands colder temperatures and grows later into the winter than the broadleaved sorts, which is why a mixed sowing staggers its own retirement. Sow into still-warm September soil and it is up in days; keep the water steady so the leaves stay mild, and cut outside-in for a long run. The February sowing finishes before the heat returns, and summer is skipped without argument.
Varieties
The Texas list is deep: broadleaved Florida Broadleaf, Tendergreen, Large Smooth Leaf and Savanna; curled Southern Giant Curled and Green Wave; and the Travis County additions Osaka Purple and Red Giant. The curled pair are the deep-winter picks.
In the kitchen
The winter pot-liquor kitchen is the destination: leaves braised low until the pot liquor is the best part, the same bowl the collards keep, sitting easily on a Tex-Mex table beside beans and tortillas. Young leaves cut mild go into salads; anything the heat sharpened goes in the pan.