Mustard

White mustard (Sinapis alba) is a fast annual in the brassica family, grown three ways: for its peppery young leaves, for its seed, which is the mild yellow condiment mustard, and as a cover crop. It gives usable leaves in 30 to 40 days and grows 12 to 30 inches, which makes it a good filler for early and late sowings when other crops are slow.

It prefers cool weather and bolts in summer heat. Direct sow a quarter inch deep a few weeks before last frost, thin to 4 to 6 inches for greens, and harvest the leaves young for the mildest flavour; sow again in late summer for fall. For seed, give the plants more room and let the pods dry on the plant, then thresh them.

As a cover crop, sow it densely in late summer or as soon as a bed is empty, and cut it down or turn it in before it sets seed, about six weeks before the bed is needed. It adds organic matter, smothers weeds, and the compounds in its roots suppress some soil nematodes and fungal diseases, a practice called biofumigation. The yellow flowers draw bees and hoverflies. Rabbits and deer will graze it.