How to grow greens fast: 6 proven ways

1. Use of perennial vegetables

You don’t even need to sow them, the option is to plant and forget. In the spring, due to the nutrients accumulated in the rhizomes and bulbs, they start first. First of all, perennial vegetables include a variety of onions: chives, batun, slime, multi-tiered (family), wild garlic, etc. And also rhubarb, katran, sorrel, horseradish … Greens for every taste! Also, spicy herbs – mint, lemon balm and lovage will help to cope with vitamin deficiency. All of them are cold-resistant and, “waking up” earlier than others, will not be afraid of return frosts and spring cold snaps. If you are completely unbearable, then after the snow melts, it is worth covering the beds with foil, this will speed up the process by another ten days.

And for gourmets, you can recommend sticking a few carrots and beets into the ground. They cannot hibernate in the soil, but the greens give a very early and vitamin one.

2. Covering with foil

The procedure is also suitable for annual crops – warming up the soil accelerates the growth of plants, regardless of their type. But you need to loosen and prepare the garden in the fall. Of the annuals, cold-resistant crops are most suitable for an early spring table: parsley, lettuce, mustard, dill and coriander.

Before sowing, parsley can be soaked in hot water (not boiling water!), Thus removing oils from the seeds that slow down germination. After the water has cooled, the seeds must be transferred to a cloth and placed in the refrigerator for a week to harden. This will help to get seedlings within five days after sowing.

Using early varieties of greens will speed up the first harvest by 10-14 days. For example: the average period of growing lettuce is about 40 days, and early maturing varieties will delight you with fresh greens by the end of the second week after sowing.

Want to speed up the process even further? Then lettuce seedlings will have to be grown on the windowsill and sown a month before planting in the ground. For normal growth in the garden, the lettuce will need a temperature of about + 20 °. This is easy to achieve if you make a mini-greenhouse for him from the film, draped over the arcs.

3. Using raised, warm beds

This will also help speed up the growth of the greenery. In order for the bed to be exactly warm, during its construction, not only drainage, but also manure is laid under the ground. When it decomposes, heat is generated, and the soil temperature will be 6-8 ° higher than in a conventional garden bed. Sowing dates are shifted accordingly. Do not forget that the “shelf life” of a warm bed is limited – usually 3-4 years, during which the organic matter located at the base of the bed has time to overheat.

4. Change in soil structure

Don’t have a warm bed? No problem. If you have sandy loam soil on your site, then it will warm up much faster than clayey. To improve the structure of the soil, you can use both ordinary sand and modern materials, perlite and vermiculite. Alternatively, you can use coconut fiber, it has the same properties, but is capable of decay, in fact, being organic. Of the shortcomings, only its relatively high cost can be called.

5. Watering with warm water

Warm water during irrigation will also bring the harvest closer. Not much, but for five days you will definitely win back from the cold. To do this, it is best to store the water in dark-colored barrels and water it in the afternoon when it warms up in the sun.

6. Arrange a vegetable garden on the windowsill

And if there is no vegetable garden and is not foreseen, but you just want greenery unbearably? We will grow on the windowsill! Some things are possible even without land – a glass of water is enough for some plants.

It’s actually even easier with microgreens than with ordinary ones. After all, special seeds are not needed for it: it can be beets, cabbage, peas, and spinach … Unless nightshades (tomatoes, peppers and eggplants) will do. It can be grown both in soil and in a hydrogel, and spinach can generally be grown in a bowl among several layers of napkins. The growth rate is also decent – after 7-12 days it is already possible to cut the crop. No top dressing is needed – the plants use the reserves accumulated in the seed. Such crops do not have time to get sick: a very short period between germination and harvesting. Ideal for the lazy!

If you want to taste your own fresh herbs, then nothing will stop the gardener. Dare, and the harvest will not be long in coming!