Mizuna
The delicate peppery leaves of Mizuna are a must for any patio veg garden. You can start harvesting just 4 weeks from sowing, and it's a 'cut and come again' plant so just chop all the leaves off leaving about 1in poking out of your compost and it'll re-grow 4-5 times.
I hold off sowing until the start of July because earlier in the year it will attract little beetles that will pepper the leaves with holes, and it will bolt - rush up and produce flowers instead of leaves. It's the perfect crop for salad leaves right through the Autumn and Winter, where it can even withstand temperatures down to minus 15 degrees.
Time from seed to plate: 4 weeks
Sowing Calendar
Sow
Fill a grow bed with multipurpose compost and make a shallow groove parallel to one side where you're going to sow the seeds. It needs to be about 1cm deep. Sprinkle the seed into the groove, about one every 2cm and cover with a thin layer of compost.
Alternatively sow the seed sparingly in a wide pot. Water and label.
Grow
Once the seedlings are growing start thinning out the smaller ones so that you end up with a plant every 10cm or so. Plants in pots can be left closer because they've more room to bush out.
Watch out for any caterpillars and pick them off by hand.
Harvest
Mizuna leaves grow to 8in, but they're at their best when they're half this size.
In the summer when it's growing fast, pick by chopping everything off to leave behind a stump 1in above ground. This will quickly regrow. Make sure you keep picking to stop it from running up to produce seed.
In the winter when it's growing more slowly it pays to be a little gentler. 'Pick round' by pulling off the outside leaves, letting the centre ones carry on growing uncut.
Like all salad leaves, immerse them in cold water for five minutes after picking to plump up the leaves.