Lettuce

I recommend the lettuce ‘Drunken Women’. I have grown it all winter in a covered tunnelhouse, wind-cloth style, and it produces all winter here in Fiordland. You just cut leaves as you need them. Linda Lambeth, Fiordland Tākaka gardener Sol Morgan says miner’s lettuce, a hardy annual, pops up everywhere in his garden when the weather cools down. “The leaves are thick and juicy, and make a wonderful addition to the autumn and winter salad menu.” In all but the coldest regions, rocket grows year round and is super versatile in the kitchen. If it bolts, just let it self-seed. Or try spicy mustard greens, which grow equally fast. Baby mustard greens add a pungent note to salads and sandwiches. I plant lettuce wherever I can find bare soil, usually where something else had just been lifted and spirited away to the kitchen. And there they mature, no matter what the weather. Lettuces survive the worst winter weather, though hail does flatten their complexion. Robert Guyton, Riverton