Grow your own Gourmet Salads

We’ve all bought them, those expensive, commercial salad bags.  They promise a lot but in reality, it’s all a bit of a disappointment.  The truth is, those salads have been picked (mostly in far off lands), washed in a sort of bleach to kill off any germs and then gas flushed in the bag to stop them oxidising on their long journey to the shops.  Of course, once opened and exposed to the air, they quickly start to break down, going limp and then browning on the ends.  After just a few days, your expensive bag of salad is now only fit for the bin and you only managed to eat half of it. 

Why not grow your own gourmet salad, right outside your back door.  Fresh, convenient and you only pick what you need at that moment. 

Lettuce does not need to ‘head up’ before it can be used.  Once it has started to produce five or six leaves, you can start picking, ok they may be small, but you can be on trend with your micro salad.  Take a few leaves off each lettuce plant, using scissors if you want or just pinch them off at the base taking care not to pull out the young plant.  You will not harm the plant and it will keep on producing leaves for you to harvest for a good number of weeks. 

You can grow in a large pot or box.  I always find it is best to grow in a good sized container for the best results.  You don’t need to spend a lot of money on your container.  The local shops often have polystyrene boxes they just throw away which are very good or the sort of plastic boxes for storing toys etc. are perfect.  If you want something a bit more decorative you could use old galvanised buckets or wash tubs.  The only limit is your imagination.  Make sure you put drainage holes in the bottom of your container and then a layer of stones or broken clay pots, this helps to stop your container from becoming waterlogged.  You could also stand your container on bricks or feet of some kind to keep it off the ground completely.

You will need some soil, multi purpose compost or a mixture of compost and garden soil would be fine.  Now you can either directly sow some seeds into the container or into a small pot of compost for transplanting when large enough.  If you choose to directly sow, before doing so, give the pot a really good watering until the water is running out of the pot, then thinly sow your seeds onto the surface, give another light watering and then cover with a very thin layer of compost.  If you sow into a little pot, do the same thing, water the soil first then sow the seeds and cover.  I usually do this method and in hot weather, I pop the pot into the fridge overnight as a cold spell helps with germination as lettuce don’t germinate well in hot weather.  If you sow seeds every two to three weeks, you will have a constant supply of delicious fresh leaves.   Try wild rocket, coriander and oriental leaves for an interesting and zingy addition.

Don’t forget, you can contact me on cottagegardenerdromahair@gmail.com with any questions or information.