Salad Greens Calling all salad lovers! Crisp and crunchy salads are perfect at this time of year, when every dinner feels fresher with a salad on the side. Grow a range of salad greens and you will have a constant supply of leaves to pick: mignonette, baby spinach, baby cos, coral green, oakleaf red, oakleaf green and coral red (pictured above). The flavour of homegrown salad leaves is far superior to anything bought at the shop. It's easy to devote a corner of earth, windowsill or pot for a selection of salad greens that you can quickly pick and throw into a salad at a moments notice.
Grow salad greens from seedlings or save even more money by sowing seeds. Sow seeds straight into the garden or pot, or sow into seed raising mix first, spray them with a fine mist of water, leave in a warm spot out of direct sunlight and seedlings will be up in 7 days.
We plant our salad greens in an area of the vegie patch that gets morning sun only (on the south side of the tomato trellis) - this way they won't bolt to seed too quickly. Some gardening friends I know plant their salad greens under shade cloth. Ironically salad greens are easier to grow in autumn and winter - but they don't really go with all those hearty winter stews!
Tips for Sucess * Sow seeds successionally every 2-3 weeks from now on and you will have a constant supply of salad from summer into autumn. * Mulch around your plants to keep the weeds out and the moisture in. * Try perennial lettuce or cut and come again lettuce, which keeps producing leaves rom the centre of the plant throughout the season, leaving the outer ones ready to pick. * I love to include a range of green and red lettuce, my favourites are baby cos, brown mustard leaves (Brassica juncea 'Red Frills' and 'Rubra' see photos above), rocket or arugula, butterhead and beetroot leaves. * Add your own compost or mature cow manure into the soil two weeks before planting and don't feed with too much high in nitrogen fertiliser as the salad greens will go soft and prone to attack from pests. * Eat when young, don't leave for too long without harvesting or the leaves will become bitter. * Pick leaves just before dinner or the best and freshest taste. * Protect from snails and slugs with beer traps, a mulch of coffee grounds or snail pellets.
Eat the weeds Just remember that you can eat the leaves of dandelions, nasturtium and purslane. They are delicious added to a mixed leaf salad.
Best vinagrette in the world! A mixed salad of leaves needs to be dressed for success. The salad dressing of choice for the Ross Family (oops Dan's recipe) is a mix of 3 parts olive oil to 1 part Vino Cotto (from Maggie Beer), and salt and pepper. Too delicious for words!
Happy vegie gardening :) Linda Ross
Get your salad green seeds from: www.greenpatchseeds.com.au (organically grown, produced in NSW) www.edenseeds.com.au www.diggers.com.au
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