Rocket

Eruca Sativa, organic from Kings Seeds

Germinates in soil temperatures of 7-25°, sow 1cm deep, takes 7 to 10 days to germinate, transplant allowing 5cm between each plant (although I have found another reference which says 15cm – I'll go with Kings version though). Matures “quickly” - however long that will turn out to be!

General rules for salad leaves will apply, so rocket will like things cool (yet sunny according to Organic Gardening for New Zealand Gardeners), will bolt easily if it's too hot or dry, and should be kept weed-free. Companion plants for lettuce should also be applicable I would think, which would mean carrots, radish, cucumber and strawberries. The latter is the only thing I'm growing, so maybe I will try some rocket in the unoccupied half of the strawberry planter, and the main spot in the garden I had tentatively flagged for rocket is the same bed as the leftover strawberry plants so that's convenient.

Last year I tried to direct sow two rows under the orange tree in early January – over the height of summer this area gets dappled sunlight so is cooler than the rest of the garden. Obviously this wasn't entirely successful, a few did germinate but Bugsy dug it up! Then at the end of January I sowed a tray of it indoors, which germinated in two days but never got thinned out or transplanted. Not a good result for rocket, all in all, do you think actually being able to eat some rocket is an attainable goal this year?

Rocket is a good one for me to try and remember successive sowings, a concept that escaped me entirely last year! So I'll go for a row running alongside the strawberries, planted front to back (since the back will probably still be completely shaded by the time the first few plants go in), a few plants each month. I will have to pop out and measure, but it's probably a 75cm stretch.