11:29 - 12 May 2010
Even without a garden there is one crop that most people can grow in pots on a balcony, terrace or small patio area. Salad leaves, just like the ones you buy in bags from the supermarket are extremely easy to grow and a great way to start gardening. What’s more it will save you money and may very well get you hooked on gardening.
Just one packet of mixed salad leaf seeds will create masses of fresh leaves all summer and if you’ve never been that keen on iceberg lettuce this is a great way to see what else is on offer. You can even grow your own salad without actually including lettuce at all. In early spring it’s perfectly easy to create a freshly picked salad for lunch without resorting to watery supermarket iceberg or floppy butter head lettuce. And you don’t have to grow it all yourself. A mixture of wild gathered leaves, some greenhouse salad plus a few leaves from the garden makes a fabulous combination.
Under glass
A greenhouse enables the gardener to start the home-grown salad season much earlier. Many salad crops can be sown as early and January and February under glass. By March and April the season is well underway and the greenhouse grower is already benefiting from the foresight of early sowing. The secret to great summer salads is successional sowing. By sowing a pot or two every week to ten days you will benefit from continuous cropping for months on end. Use a quality seed compost for the best results and don’t forget to pot these seedlings into larger pots of quality vegetable growing compost or multi-purpose compost to give them plenty of root space to grow on. Never plant salad seeds into pots of garden soil, as this will be full of weed seeds, some of which may not be edible and these will grow among your salad plants.
There are literally masses of early salad plants that can be sown and harvested within weeks, but don’t settle for the obvious ones. Look out for tasty edible radish leaf and other easy to grow delicacies such as watercress that grows happily in quality compost and does not need to be waterlogged at all.
Many modern salad leaf collections are designed to be grown in large pots on the patio and then harvested as required. You can sow them from early spring right through the summer to create your own mixtures of healthy fresh leaves. Each pack contains enough seed for several sowings, sow a few each week for fresh leaves all season and cut them while they are young to keep the plants producing. Sow broad beans and peas for extra leaves, personally I love the taste of broad bean leaves in salads and stir-fries, these easy to grow plants are fast to germinate producing large, soft leaves for weeks on end. Pea tops make a tasty addition as do baby beetroot leaves. Use a top quality dedicated seed compost for the best results.
Wild things
And just as free-range food is all the rage in the restaurants and tables of the health conscious and dare I say wealthy, there’s a true following building for wild crafted crops. Unlike the meat alternatives these are free and readily available to anyone with an eye for foraging and a basic knowledge of plants.
Early spring sees many buds and shoots bursting into life and it is these wonderful green sprigs, again full of life and vitality that transform an early salad. You just have to know what is edible. My favourite is wild garlic, it makes a wonderful addition to spring salads, soups, stir-fries, but there are other wild plants that can be used to bulk up the salad bowl. Garlic mustard is another early spring stalwart; it too adds a spicy flavour to the menu. Cover a patch of dandelion with a paving slab to block the light and harvest the pale yellow leaves for a less bitter taste. As always it is essential to really know your plants and correctly identify any that you intend to eat. If in any doubt do not eat it.
