Ravishing radicchio

I mean…

It’s that time of year again when virtually nothing is happening in the garden and we have to console ourselves with planning and buying seeds and dreaming of more colourful times. I’ve decided that this year, as well as all the usual cut flowers, I’m going to try and find space for a few salad crops. I have suddenly become obsessed with various types of radicchio - not only to eat, but also just to look at. They are so pretty! But the prettiest ones (ie the pink ones) are not easy to come by and cost an arm and a leg when you do.

So I’ve found some Italian seeds online. Chicory ‘Rosa’, ‘Rosa Isontina’ and ‘Variegate di Lusia’. I really wanted ‘Rosa del Veneto’ which look like actual flowers (they’re the pink ones in the photo above), but I can’t find any, sadly, so I’ll have to keep buying them from Natoora. They are so good with chorizo fried in honey and manchego cheese.

I have a feeling these fancy lettuces, which is essentially what they are, are going to be absolute divas to grow. They don’t want too much sun I don’t think, so I’m going to try them in the cold frame on the north-east side of the greenhouse. They may need more attention and effort than I can spare. But at the moment, the thought of them is getting me through the grey days. COME ON SPRING.