Make your salads special by growing mizuna (shown with red mustard in top photo), tatsoi, red-veined spinach and purple radish (shown left to right)

Salad greens from the store are nice, but nothing can beat fresh greens from your own garden. Now is a great time to grow these greens!

I encourage you to explore the mild mustards from Asia. These greens come in fascinating colors and shapes. They are harvested young and are very popular in salad mixes today. 

Start with mizuna. This classic Japanese green has deeply cut leaves (top photo) that will delight your eyes when sprinkled on a salad. Its mild flavor will delight your taste buds too. Mizuna is definitely worth a try!

Tatsoi (left photo) has been a favorite in our North Dakotatrials for years. Its mild, crunchy leaves are great for salads and in stir fry dishes.

This is the best time of the year to grow spinach—it thrives under cool temps. Spinach adds rich flavor to salads and sandwiches. Try a red-vein type like ‘Red Kitten’ (center photo).

No salad would be complete without radishes, and fall is the best time to grow them. Radishes sown in spring get bitter as they mature under rising temps. Radishes sown in fall will mature under cooling temps, leading to milder, crisper roots. You can make your salad extra special by growing a purple radish (right photo).

NDSU is inviting families to try these and other vegetables in its home garden variety trials this fall. Seeds are available for testing for free. Supplies are limited. For more information, go to https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/homegardenvarietytrials/.

Written by Tom Kalb, Extension Horticulturist, North Dakota State University. Published in the NDSU Yard & Garden Report, August 1, 2017. Photos were made available under Creative Commons licenses specified by the photographers: Julia Sudnitskaya; www.foxlinecityfarm.com; and Tim Sackton.