Vibrant Leafy Vegetables To Add Colour To Your Beds

Posted on 08. May, 2010 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

As the weather has taken a decidedly turn for the worst, we’ll all need cheering up again in the garden soon, so why not try sowing some vibrant vegetables now so when the sun finally appears they’ll be bright, edible and looking radiant in your beds and pots.

1. Chard (Beta vulgaris) or Swiss Chard

A leaf vegetable with vibrant colour stems which is in the same family as the beetroot and is very popular in the Mediterranean. Colours include red (ruby or rhubarb chard), yellow (golden chard), white (swiss chard), orange (Oriole Chard).

Bright Chard

Growing Swiss Chard
It is good for beginners and has a good long cropping season. It is not a fussy plant so can be sown anywhere with good drainage in full sun or part shade.

Sow: May to July
Harvest: July to December
No of Weeks for Seedlings to Appear: Approx. 2 weeks.
Tip: If you sow a variety called Bright Lights (mixture of colours) you can pick after approx. 36 days as baby leaves to add to salads.

Reasons to Sow:

Requires little maintenance,
Very easy to grow in pots or beds,
Can be sown in any free draining soil.

Lettuce

2. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

Lettuce is part of the daisy family and the name lettuce comes from Lac the latin word from milk referring to the lettuces milky juice. The 6 cultivar groups of lettuce are chinese, ball or butter head, loose leaf, crisp head, Cos and summer crisp.

Growing Lettuce
Lettuce like cool conditions otherwise they will bolt (grow a flower stem which spoils the plant).

Colours: Lime (iceberg) to mint (crisp mint) to dark greens (webbs wonderful), yellowy greens (australian yellowleaf), red’s to browns (Dazzle, flame, rubens red, bughatti, red batvian, roxy).

Sow: March to August
Harvest: July to September (there are also winter varieties to sow in August)
No of Weeks for Seedlings to Appear: 1-2 Weeks.
Tip: Sow any type of loose leaf lettuce (e.g. oakleaf, salad bowl, etc) to produce a cut and come again leaf which can grow quickly and be grown in seed trays, pots or window boxes.

Reasons to Sow:

Doesn’t take up much room so great for smaller plots,
Can survive growing in the shade,
Loose leaf types can be sown indoors on the windowsill.

Kale Redbor F1

3. Kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala)

Kale is a very hardy vegetable and can be used to gain a bit of height in the vegetable garden.

Growing Kale
Kale grows in any soil with good drainage and doesn’t require staking as it is a sturdy plant. There are dwarf varieties available like dwarf green curled which can take up small corners or over hang the beds.

Colours: The red varieties have bright purple stems and leaf veins like Redbor F1, Scarlet, Red Curled. Other varieties like Nero di Toscana have large very dark green almost black leaves which would be a great backdrop to the bright coloured stems of chard.

Sow: April to June
Harvest: September to April
No of Weeks for Seedlings to Appear: 1-1.5 Weeks
Tip: Once your kale plant is established, you can sow fast growing crops underneath like radish or low growing lettuce or even root crops.

Reasons to Sow:

Little or no pests and diseases attack kale,
Very hardy plant and easy to sow,
If you grow too much, it can be easily frozen for eating later.

Reddy Spinach

4. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Spinach is thought to be from Persia and is a rich source of iron. It is a cool weather crop and grows well with chard and perpetual spinach (leaf beet).

Growing Spinach
Spinach can grow in any soil and like sun or semi shade conditions. It likes rich soils so add a handfull of compost to the area before sowing.

Colours: All shades of green and dark red stem and leaf vein varieties including Reddy (dark red stems), Giant American (dark green), Tirza (baby leaves), Bordeaux (red veined).

Sow: March to June
Harvest: June to September
No of Weeks for Seedlings to Appear: 1 to 2 Weeks.
Tip: Sow spinach under bean plants or tall kale so the plants aren’t in full sun. Otherwise they may bolt (send up flower stems and become spoilt). They also need to be well watered in dry periods.
Tip 2: If your spinach plants do bolt, try sowing perpetual spinach instead, larger leaved than normal spinach but doesn’t bolt.

Reasons to Sow: