let's talk greens

Image borrowed from amazon.com.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking about edible landscaping to a delightful crowd of 100 or so at the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center Horticulture Day in Waseca, MN. To all those in attendance, thank you for your warm welcome and your enthusiastic participation in what was for me a really fun hour of edible landscape conversation.

We talked a bit about a little-known leafy green named Mizuna mustard. This Japanese mustard green has deeply serrated leaves, with long, light green stems. It has a fringy, lacy appearance making it a great addition to the edible landscape. It's great for use in salads, where it adds a nice texture and a mild zing when used with sweet and tender baby lettuces or other leaf lettuces.

When I got home this afternoon I found that my latest issue of Organic Gardening magazine had arrived. On the front cover is a beautiful salad featuring...you guessed it...Mizuna mustard! The article tells of several other greens that would be really fun to use in the edible landscape. A few of them are:

• 'Flashy butter oak' lettuce (I'd get this one just for the name!!!)


• 'Mascara' red oak leaf lettuce


• Purple pak choi


• 'Red Streaked' Mizuna


• 'Red Russian' kale


• 'Oriole' Swiss chard (yes, chard is great in salads too, especially when very young)


• 'Wrinkled Crinkled ' cress

All of these, and many more would bring a great splash of color, texture and of course flavor to your edible landscape! Bon appetit!