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Garden Vegetable Seasonal Highlight: Tatsoi and Radish Greens

It’s the beginning of May as I write this, and there are SO MANY vegetables that are ready to be planted right NOW! Its gorgeous outside with no frost in the foreseeable forecast but don’t be fooled. It could turn on a dime, and make you regret that you trusted the weather. Wait until toward the end of May for warm weather vegetables like tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and squash. But there is no reason you cannot be planting cool weather vegetables like carrots, beets, rutabagas, and potatoes, and some hardy green vegetables like Swiss chard, various lettuces and Asian greens. Here are some favourite standbys of mine: Tatsoi, Radish Greens, Chives, Garlic Chives, Sorrel and Welsh Onion.

TATSOI

Being open-minded can reveal a whole new world of vegetables that thrive in our climate. Don’t overlook TATSOI just because it’s unfamiliar—it has so much to offer. Sometimes, the best discoveries come when we simply open our eyes and minds.

I first stumbled upon TATSOI by chance. It was part of a seed donation at a SEED event hosted by our local community garden. From the moment I grew it, I was hooked, and I knew that it would have a permanent place in my garden.

Tatsoi with sample ways of preparing it.

That first year, I started the seeds indoors. But I soon realized they didn’t need that big of a a head start. The following year, I direct-seeded them in the garden. TATSOI germinates quickly, grows fast, and isn’t fussy about growing conditions either — it’s just eager to grow and eager to please you. What’s not to love about that?

Many Asian greens are well-suited to cool climates like the Edmonton area in Alberta, which falls into Zone 3 and higher. It’s no surprise they’re growing in popularity. “Asian greens” refers to a variety of leafy vegetables commonly used in Asian cuisines—such as bok choy, Chinese broccoli, napa cabbage, pea shoots, and TATSOI. These versatile greens can be stir-fried, steamed, added to soups, or tossed into salads. They bring bold flavour to the table and deliver a powerful punch of nutrition.

Until now, I’ve grown my TATSOI in a sunny part of the garden, but this year I’m experimenting with a spot that gets less sun. I’m optimistic and expecting good results, so stay tuned! I’ll post an update later in the season once I see how things go.

How to Grow Tatsoi

Tatsoi is a cold-hardy, fast-growing Asian green that’s easy to grow and well-suited to a wide range of gardens, especially in cool climates.

🌱 When to Plant in Zone 3

Early spring – as early as the soil can be worked – mid April is perfect timing

🌞 Light Requirements

Full sun to part shade. It grows best in full sun but tolerates some shade. If you get hot summers, a less sunny spot may prevent it from bolting.

🪴 Soil

Prefers moist, well draining soil rich in organic matter (compost).

🌾 Sowing Seeds

Direct sow seeds 1/4 inch deep and spaced about 1 inch apart.
Thin to 6 inches apart for full heads by harvesting baby greens earlier.
You can also grow TATSOI in containers or raised beds.

💧 Watering

Keep soil evenly moist, especially during germination and early growth.
Mulching with straw will help keep moisture in the soil between waterings.

🍃 Growth and Harvest

You can expect germination in 5-10 days, depending on soil temperature.
Ready to harvest in 20-45 days, depending on whether you’re picking baby leaves or full rosettes.
Harvest outer leaves as needed, or cut the whole plant at the base.

❄️ Cold Tolerance

Light frost won’t harm them, and may even sweeten the flavour.
Very cold-hardy—can survive light frost and even snow. Now THAT’S what I like to hear.

RADISH GREENS

I don’t like radishes. There—I said it. I’ve tried many times, but they’ve never won me over. That said, we’re not enemies. Radishes are welcome at my table—as long as someone else invited them to the party. What I do like, however, are young radish greens. They’re tender, flavourful, and a great addition to the garden. That’s reason enough for me to plant radishes. It’s a bit of a trade-off, you can’t have your radishes and your radish greens too. Once the roots mature, the greens are tough and prickly. So, you have to decide: do you want the root or the greens? For me its no contest. I’m in it for the greens. They’re quick to germinate and easy to grow. You can pull them out when you’re ready for them, or try snipping them off at the ground for another lighter batch to follow. Throw them into a salad or put them into a fresh pesto.1

Radish leaves when eaten when their small and tender are delicious put into a sandwich, into a salad, or made into a pesto.

* Fun fact: Radishes and Chives are native to China and other parts of Asia.

How to Grow Radishes

Radishes are among the easiest and fastest vegetables to grow—perfect for beginners and rewarding for seasoned gardeners alike. If you like the spicey flavour of radishes, then go for it, but even if you don’t, you might like the milder tender greens from the young plant. Grow some for their roots if you like, and some for their greens.

🌱 When to Plant

Early spring and later summer.
For continuous harvests, succession sow every 2 weeks.
Avoid the hot midsummer – they bolt and turn woody in heat.

🌞 Light Requirements

Full sun (6+ hours a day is best)
They tolerate partial sun to light shade.

🪴 Soil

Loose, well drained soil with good fertility.

🌾 Sowing Seeds

Direct sow outdoors, they do not transplant well.
Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep spaced 1 inch apart.
Thin seedlings to 2 inches apart to allow for root growth. EAT the greens you thin out.

💧 Watering

Keep soil consistently moist but not soggy.
Uneven watering can cause roots to split or grow tough.

⏱️ Growth and Harvest

Fast growers! Young leaves can be ready in 2-3 weeks.
Roots will be ready in 3-4 weeks.

❄️ Cold Tolerance

Radishes can tolerate light frost. Not suited for the heat of mid summer.

Chives, Garlic Chives, Welsh Onion and Sorrel

clockwise from top right: Garlic Chives with identifiable flat leaves, Welsh onion with large hollow leave, Sorrel with big bright lemony leaves, Chives with tender green delicately onion flavoured leaves.

* Every garden should have a chive plant—and, in my opinion, it should also have garlic chives, a Welsh onion, and a sorrel plant. These are the kind of hardy, perennial favourites that quietly earn their keep year after year.2 And while we’re on the subject, I firmly believe every garden needs at least one rhubarb plant… but that’s a sermon for another post.

If you’re fairly new to growing Asian greens, don’t overlook trusty favorites like chives, kale, sorrel, and even radish greens. While they may not all be traditionally associated with “Asian” cooking, they work beautifully in the same types of dishes. They’re also easy to grow, cold-hardy, and incredibly productive.

I hope you’ll give TATSOI and Radish Greens, a full chance to impress you. And also these other wonderful perineal greens. I’d love to hear your experiences. In the meantime, Happy Growing!
Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle
May 2, 2025

Footnotes:

  1. recipe for Radish Green Pesto https://backyardcityhomestead.com/2020/06/19/common-herbs-and-spices-in-your-house-and-yard-part-5-mullein-to-plantain/ ↩︎
  2. Chives, Garlic Chives, Welsh Onion and Sorrel are all perennial vegetables – meaning they’ll come back every year if planted in the ground. They are easy to grow, easy to use, and very dependable. You can start harvesting in April.
    * Chives and Garlic Chives are good companions in the garden. Chives have fine round hollow green leaves, used like a mild green onion. Garlic Chives have flat leaves and is every bit as valuable as the normal chives, having a slightly more ‘garlic’ flavour. Easy to grow, and will get bigger every year. Easy to cut a piece of the plant with roots off for sharing. They both flower and the flowers have thousands of seeds in them, anxious to become a plant. Best not to allow the flowers to go to seed.
    Can be used in cooking, or to top sandwiches, salads or just about anything else that lends itself to a mild onion flavour.
    * A Welsh onion is very hardy, one of the first to come up in the spring, and growing bigger every year. Also known as Japanese bunching onions or spring onions, they are non bulbing onions that produce clumps of hollow green leaves that are stronger in taste than chives or garlic chives.
    Growing: They prefer full sun to part shade, well-drained soil, and regular watering. 
    Division: Welsh onions divide at the base, creating clumps that can be divided and replanted to increase production. 
    Flowering: They produce white, globe-shaped flowers in late spring, which can be cut off to encourage more leaf and bulb production. 
    Don’t trust the name. “Welsh onion” originated in northern China or Siberia, definitely not Wales.
    * Sorrel is often called “Lemon Sorrel” because of the gentle lemony flavour in its leaves, and is highly prized in European and Asian cooking.  To grow, choose a sunny location with well drained soil but ample moisture. choose.
    Once you’ve got these plants established in your garden, you can benefit from them all season long, snipping as you need them.
    The best thing is that you likely have friends who have them. Just ask if you can have a portion of their plant, and replant into your own permanent garden area. Perennials are always looking for a friend. ↩︎
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Common Herbs in your House and Yard: part 3 Garlic to Ginger

part 3 – Garlic, Garlic Chives, Ginger

GARLIC

– plant every fall for mid summer harvest.
Garlic is a staple in the kitchen of course but there many other benefits that earn it an honoured place in every herb garden. The bulbs grown in your backyard garden may be smaller, but stronger, hotter and in every way more potent than the ones you buy in the grocery store.  Use them in homemade salad dressings, pasta sauces, soups and in every other dish you might normally add onions to.  Garlic and onions are best friends in any dish. 

But medicinally, the key phytochemical in garlic is allicin which has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiseptic and antioxidant properties.  It can also be anti-social. LOL
I know, it seems too good to be true, but after a lifetime of using it, I am convinced it really is the super food it boasts about being with all of these properties.  The thing to remember is that allicin is most potent when the garlic is consumed raw, and while some people swallow the clove whole, there is evidence to indicate that the allicin is best released when the fresh clove is chewed or crushed. But who wants to chew a clove of garlic right?  (see below) Mincing the garlic and putting it into a salad dressing is a great way to eat it. The longer you wait the stronger it gets so you might want to eat it right away before it over powers the dressing.

Heart health:
garlic reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke because it improves blood circulation and lowers harmful cholesterol.  Studies have shown that garlic helps reduce blood pressure allowing blood to flow more freely,

Arthritis:
Studies have shown that because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, garlic reduces the pain and inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis.  

Boost to Immunity:
Garlic’s biggest benefit in my opinion is its ability to enhance natural immunity through its antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral and antifungal properties. It is a surprisingly good source of Vitamins C and B, as well as the minerals selenium and manganese – all of which strengthen the body’s defense mechanism in fighting infections.

Garlic is an excellent treatment – reducing the severity and shortening the duration of common colds, flues and other viruses, as well as chronic respiratory conditions.  Again it is the compound allicin that is responsible for this antiviral action. 

Fungal infections:
Garlic’s powerful antifungal properties make is an effective agent against fungal infections such as ringworm and athlete’s foot, and yeast infections such as thrush.

The answer of course is to include raw garlic in your diet.  But we all know that garlic has a powerful taste and cannot always be eaten fresh, no matter how much I desire these health benefits.  Especially when it should be eaten raw and ‘chewed’ or crushed to best release the allicin. 

When my kids were young and more trusting, I could entice them to chew a clove of garlic when they were suffering with a cold.  I would crush it and put it on a small piece of bread with peanut butter and honey, and sit beside them with a glass of apple juice to help wash it down.  But when they got bigger, it was not so easy to talk them into this course of action.  I couldn’t blame them.  We use it as much as we can in our diets, but it is not that easy.  In the case of garlic, I recommend using garlic oil (made from crushed cloves in olive oil), oil of garlic (essential oil), and high quality garlic supplements that you can buy in the health food store. Normally, I’m all about using what I grow in the garden exclusively, but sometimes garlic needs a helping hand, simply because it is so anti-social.

growing

Growing your own garlic is well worth the effort. 
A good time to plant in the Edmonton area is late September or early October. For mid season harvesting, you want them to have time to establish the beginning of a root system before winter, but not enough to sprout. I’ve also planted garlic in the early spring for harvest at the end of the season.

After your first year you can plant next year’s garlic with this year’s bulbs, but to start with, buy from a local garden centre instead of planting the garlic you buy in grocery stores. Select the largest bulbs with the plumpest cloves you can find. Make sure they are firm and clean looking, without any signs of mould or fungus. Break the garlic bulb into cloves. Do not peel them.  Each clove will grow into a bulb by the next year but it needs that protective papery covering.

Choose a sunny part of your garden with well-drained soil. Mark the area so you remember where the cloves are next spring. Don’t crowd them. Plant the cloves about 6 inches apart and about 2 inches deep, sprinkling a little bone-meal into each hole as you go.  Because you’re going to leave them for the winter, spread about 3 inches of nice clean, organic mulch over the area, chopped up leaves, wood shavings, straw, – to help insulate.

First thing in the spring, gently move the mulch over. You’ll soon see the tender green sprouts. Let nature take care of them, watering when necessary. Remember they don’t like a soggy spot, they need the soil to be well drained. Mid growing season the plant will develop curly tendrils of greenery that come up from the stalk. This is the plant wanting to flower and go to seed. Snip it.

harvesting

When the stalks start to die back, about the beginning of August, you know its almost time to harvest. Give it a week or so, then gently remove one plant to test. Its tempting to pull, but dig so you don’t risk breaking the stalk off. Garlic is ready when it looks like you think it should. Too early and the protective papery wrapping will be thin or non existent. In that case give it another week. When ready, gently dig them all with a fork and lay in a box out of the sun and rain for a couple of weeks to dry out. I like to braid them into a hanging, but you can also cut the stalks off at this point and store for winter.

* GARLIC CHIVES
– wonderful flat chives with more than a hint of garlic in the flavour.  Like chives, its root base is a clump of ‘bulbs’.  You can cut a handfull just like regular chives to use in the kitchen, and just like chives its root base is a clump of ‘bulbs’.  This is super convenient when you want a stronger garlic taste for your dish.  Pull up a few stocks from the base to gently separate some bulbs from the rest of the plant.  Presto! Garlic bulbs.  I have no idea if any of the medicinal properties of garlic are replicated, but the taste sure is. It is the perfect answer for midseason garlic while I’m waiting for my other garlic to ripen.

GINGER

fresh ginger root

Ginger – nearly everyone can identify its flavour in baking, which is where it is most often used in North American and European kitchens. But the last few years have opened up a whole lotta versatility as we adopt it as a savoury seasoning, not just for desserts. This is very good news.
Ginger can be used fresh, dried, powdered, candied, juiced or even as an oil. Fresh Ginger root is readily available in the produce department of most grocery stores and is so easy to use. It deserves a place in your kitchen. You jut need to discover why, and then make friends with it.

Ginger ale, Gingerbread, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Pumpkin Pies, pretty much any pumpkin dessert . . . Those are the ways we’re most familiar with, but open your mind, and make room for ginger. You’re about to fall in love.

Did you know it also has great health benefits? Ginger is often used to calm an upset stomach, indigestion, motion sickness and other forms of nausea including morning sickness! It stimulates digestive enzymes which is helpful in enhancing digestion, and relieving heartburn and indigestion. It’s an absolute must-have in the kitchen for those times that nothing else is working. 

Make yourself a soothing cup of fresh ginger tea by simply steeping a few slices in boiling water. How many slices? Well, that depends on how strong you like it. Start with one or two, and go from there. Chill it as a refreshing cold drink on a warm summer day. Drink it hot in your favourite mug on those cold winter days.

Grate it up to add to a salad dressing, a homemade teriyaki sauce, a curry recipe, or your favourite stir fried vegetables.

Yes, you can buy a bottle of ginger powder from the grocery store, but when you find out how easy it is to dry and powder your own, you’ll never go back to store bought powder again.

growing:

Not so easy to grow ginger in Alberta, but in the spring of 2020, I planted three pots of ginger root just for fun. I chose ginger roots with visible nodules and cut the root to ensure each piece had a few on it. I planted shallowly in a soil, just enough to cover, and kept them in sunny locations on my patio. I nurtured them along, and brought them into the house for the winter. The next spring I brought it back outside, but half way through the season, I kinda got tired of the plant which was interesting enough looking (a couple of tall spears), but not very spectacular. I decided to dig them up, but when I did, I saw that the root was significantly bigger than when I first planted it, so I put it back into the soil and took care of it. Eventually, I dug it up and used it. I was pretty happy to do so, but as fun as the experiment was, we are still dependent on store purchased ginger root in this country.

using:

Ginger honey:
I recently discovered something lovely. Ginger honey. It seemed like such a natural combination – good tasting, as well as a good way of benefitting from the wonderfulness of ginger. I made my very first batch this week and am anxious to taste it in the coming weeks as the ginger has a chance to infuse throughout the honey.

ginger honey

I began with one pint of honey and one tablespoon of home ground ginger powder. It seemed like a lot of ginger, but when I mixed it all in, the taste was surprisingly mild. I think to get the maximum benefit, I’ll probably add more ginger later (stay tuned for update if I do), but I’m gonna give it two weeks before I decide to do that. The reason I chose ginger powder as opposed to fresh ginger root, is shelf life. It stands to reason to me that fresh ginger being moist, it might eventually go bad, and I should probably refrigerate it. I might surprise myself to find out that the honey actually preserves the ginger . . . but then for how long? I just decided to be safe and go with powder for now.

I have creamy honey. I also have fairly solid honey. And I have liquid honey which is very old, given to me from my dad who has long since passed away. I chose to use the liquid because its easier to mix up. If you used a more solid form, I think you’d want to slowly heat it over boiling water to get it to the point that you could actually stir the ginger into it. Personally, I wouldn’t melt it in the microwave. Yes, its quicker and easier, but I think I’d choose a more gentle way of melting it – to keep ‘goodness’ the prime focus. I also chose to use a wide mouth jar, just to make stirring it up easier.

ingredients:
2 cups honey
1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) ginger powder

directions:
Pour honey into a clean dry glass pint jar – half full. Add 2 teaspoons ginger powder and stir with the blade of a table knife or a chop stick. When fully infused, pour a little more honey into the jar and add another teaspoon of ginger. Stir again to fully emulsify. Top up with honey and stir once more to blend completely.
Put the lid on, label with date and set aside for two weeks.
Enjoy in every way you would use honey: on toast in the morning, in a cup of herbal tea, whatever.

Ginger Tea:
1. Pour hot water over a small slice of fresh ginger in a cup and let it steep 5 minutes. Add a little lemon juice just before drinking if you like.
2. In the absence of fresh ginger, add a small amount of powdered ginger to hot water with lemon juice.

Ginger water:
Add a few slices fresh ginger to a jug of water and leave to steep in the fridge. Sip throughout the day.

Ginger Lemonade:
Prepare your favourite lemonade recipe (using fresh lemons of course), and add grated fresh ginger. Let steep at least ten minutes before serving.

. . . . . more to come on ginger

. . . . .

Tell me about your experiences with these herbs. I’d love to learn from you too.

warmly,

Cindy Suelzle