From sweet to zesty, greens are easy-to-grow summer treat

Deer foraged their way into my garden again and committed an unforgivable crime: They ate my chicory. Take the Maltese cross, eat the plump snapdragon buds, chew on broccoli leaves until only bare green stems remain, but don’t mess with my chicory.

Not only are the pretty baby-blue flowers of chicory to be adored, the lightly bitter greens can be tossed with any salad, layered into a sandwich or stirred into soup. Chicory, along with other greens such as lettuce, arugula, spinach, beet and mustard, offers fresh, tender, succulent leaves that are packed with an array of healthful nutrients.

The only difficulty is that the deer must be battled to enjoy this early springtime vegetable feast.

Greens are among the easiest vegetables to grow. Sow them in the garden. Seed them into a raised bed. Plant them in a container. Grow them on a sunny windowsill. It’s likely that wherever you have space, greens will grow. And there are greens for every taste: From the sweet, tender leaves of green or red lettuce and the spicy zest of arugula or mustard to the bitter of escarole or chicory, greens satisfy the palate in spring.

Lettuce is perhaps the most widely grown green, and that’s really no surprise. In the grocery store, iceberg lettuce is most prominent, and this is probably not so much a testimony to its flavor as it is to the ease with which it is commercially produced and shipped great distances from field to market.

Cultivating “gourmet” varieties of lettuce in the garden opens up a world of new flavor and richness. Butterhead lettuce melts in your mouth with lush, thick, soft green or red leaves that surround a tender white heart. Loose-leaf lettuce has green, red or variegated leaves and frilly edges that make a salad sweeter and rich in texture. Crisphead lettuce may be green to scarlet, with a small, dense head at the center, surrounded by thin leaves. Romaine lettuce has vase-shaped heads, with crispy, long, sweet leaves that have a thick midrib.

Batavian lettuces are sweet, juicy and crisp. They are heat-tolerant, a quality that aids the gardener in overcoming the challenges of growing cool-weather-loving lettuce through the higher temperatures of summer.

Lettuce can be grown in any decent, well-drained soil, whether your garden is in full sun or partial shade. Lettuce tends to be afflicted with disease if soil is poorly drained, so improve the drainage capacity of wet soils by incorporating garden compost, thoroughly composted manure or peat to a depth of 4 inches.

Some lettuce types will germinate in soil temperatures as low as 35 F. Early-spring sowings can be followed at regular, two-week intervals to ensure a successive harvest throughout summer. Broadcast the seed in rows at least 9 inches apart, gently rake a thin layer of soil over the seed and lightly tamp the soil. Once the first set of true leaves are apparent, plants should be thinned to 9 inches apart. Vigilant, regular irrigation will ensure a hearty crop of greens throughout spring.

When the heat of summer sets in and temperatures more than 80 F persist, lettuce can become bitter and bolt. Bolting is a response by cool-loving plants in which they rapidly go to seed. Growing lettuce under a shade structure may effectively reduce the intensity of heat and lengthen the period of time in which greens may be harvested. Intercrop lettuce in the understory of taller plants or leafy plants such as broccoli. Just watch out that the deer don’t get both!