Salad days just keep rolling on

My salad greens have made like wild horses and bolted, so despite my failed efforts to convince everyone at home that rocket seedpods have a unique bitter nutty flavour, this weekend I’ll be planting more salad greens. Rocket, mesclun and spinach germinate in a matter of days, provided you keep the soil moist, and will be ready to start harvesting by the end of the month. If possible, sow them in a part of your garden that gets afternoon shade. This gives them a little respite from the heat and stops them going to seed so quickly.

Keep yourself in salad all summer by staggering plantings. Sow a small amount of seed or plant a new punnet every week. Combo punnets offer several cut-and-comeagain varieties or plant easyhearting varieties such as ‘Buttercrunch’ or ‘Cos’ (my favourite – really I’m very shallow when it comes to my lettuces, and only plant the red ones for their looks). Remember to water them daily. The faster your lettuces grow, the sweeter they’ll taste. seaweed when you’re at the beach (I got the kids to help and treated it like a seaweed-gathering treasure hunt) and treat your garden to a nutrient-rich soil conditioning treatment. Kelp, in particular, has high levels of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and natural growth hormones. (Read more about seaweed here in this week’s book extract from Collins Field Guide to the New Zealand Seashore.)

I do as my gran did and place seaweed directly around my roses as a mulch (leaving space around the stems) but you can also add it the compost (layer with carbon-rich woody prunings or cardboard to stop it going slimy), dig it into the soil or make seaweed fertiliser by soaking it in a bucket of water until it becomes a brown sludge, diluting it about 1:10 so it’s the colour of weak tea, then using it as a foliar feed or watering into the soil. Don’t plant directly into seaweed as it may burn young plants.

Check your local council’s website and check that there are no harvesting restrictions in your area, and remember only to harvest seaweed that has washed up on the beach rather than pulling it off rocks. small blooms off at the base of the flower or use secateurs to cut off the flower stem below the spent flower and above the first set of full leaves.

Help basil last the distance all summer by harvesting it regularly. Pinch any developing flowers out with your fingers. If you have enough basil plants for your own needs, be charitable to the bees and leave some to flower.