Gourmet Gardener | Planting spinach and wild rocket

Gourmet gardener Helena Murch is sowing spinach and wild rocket, and munching asparagus

Plant it

Make space for some spinach and rocket plants in the gourmet garden this year. They’re easy to grow, delicious, nutritious and will yield a crop only a few weeks after planting. They’re also great together in a mixed salad. To ensure you get just enough leaves throughout the season, don’t sow the patch all in one go but serially, and in lines every two or three weeks from the end of March until September. This’ll give you a regular crop of the smallest and tastiest leaves.

Rocking rocket

I prefer to grow wild rocket because I find it bolts less in the summer months and has a longer growing season. Also the leaves are generally smaller and make a delicious salad. Buying a variety of perpetual spinach is sensible, as plants should have a longer life span. Plant by digging over the soil and removing weeds and large stones, then mix in some well-rotted manure or compost and turn over again. Make a fine drill (a shallow trench) and place the seeds into this, then cover with a fine layer of soil and water. Mark the drill with a stick so you are clear of the division between emerging plants, and regularly hoe away weeds between lines and thin the plants if they’re becoming overcrowding. Then all you have to do is to keep the soil moist.

Rich pickings

Once each plant has five or six leaves you can start to pick a couple of leaves from each plant. The smaller they are, the better they taste. Leave the rest of the plant to grow on and take leaves as required. If you’re cooking with spinach you may want to pick when the leaves have grown larger as they seem to melt away to almost nothing requiring a large amount to make a meal. Then, as the plants get past their prime and either flower or the stems become woody, lift and add to the compost heap.

Eat it

I feel a little surge of happiness when I see the first asparagus tips emerging through the ground, as I know a tasty meal is just around the corner. You can’t beat homegrown or local asparagus, and I purposefully don’t eat or buy any throughout the rest of the year so that the anticipation of a seasonal crop is heightened. If you’re buying it then look out for good quality, locally produced asparagus which you can eat on the day it’s been picked, such as Cornish Asparagus from near Wadebridge. If you’ve your own asparagus bed, start to harvest when the first spears are around 15cm tall and limit yourself to harvesting for a maximum of six weeks. Then you just need to think about how to prepare it. I like to steam it lightly and serve with a sprinkle of seasoning and a dribble of butter, or if you have time make a hollandaise sauce. Asparagus also barbecues well, which is just as well at this time of year. Truly scrumptious.

Good gardening! GG

Planting strawberries? Read the Gourmet Gardener’s guide here.

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