Gardening is a never-ending series of cycles. We garden by season, and change our practices of sowing, tending and harvesting to match nature’s time clock. Gardening gets complicated as we expand the list of plants we wish to grow; annuals, perennials, herbs and veggies all have seasonal lifecycles the gardener tries to satisfy.

One of the least complicated, instantly gratifying, and fleeting gardens is a patch of fall greens. Now is the time to plant salad and greens for fall and winter. Growing up, “eat your greens” was Mom’s nightly advice each winter. I can remember driving to the opening of the first real supermarket in town; it was “international” and had all kinds of exotic food not on our regular menu. Pizza, Asian foods, Mexican food, things not available in the Mom and Pop groceries; I wonder how many foresaw these exotics as America’s staple foods in years to come?

Anyway, growing up, we ate food produced regionally and fresh veggies in winter just didn’t exist. Greens were all there were for fresh vegetables, so they had to be eaten. Mom said so!

It is funny how one mellows with time, and now I not only eat my greens, I love them! Stir-fried with garlic, they are delicious. There are all kinds of fall greens to choose from: lettuces, kale, and collards are some of the more common ones. But with lettuce, there are many choices, such as leaf lettuce and head lettuce. With leaf lettuce your can choose red or green leaf; Oakleaf or Romaine. Additionally, Asian greens open a whole world of fine dining: pak choi, asian spinach and many others offer many tastes and textures. For those with more space, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts love fall’s cool temperatures. For the more experienced, leeks, onions, and garlic can all be grown in small spaces.

A fall garden is easy to grow and takes little space. In a few short weeks, sown seeds become ready-to-harvest food, one last little push at the end of the growing season! Winter always shuts this garden down! But a few, like the kale, will remain standing for harvest well into winter. I do not understand why anyone with a little space doesn’t grow a fall salad patch. If anyone is interested, please drop me a line.