Bustling salad box

Vintage wooden fruit crates are perfect for growing veg due to their size and depth, and as they can be placed tightly together or neatly into corners, they are handy where space is limited. Happy in sun or very light shade, this lively green, red and orange gathering of salad and garnish plants will crop and provide visual appeal for a long while, allowing you to pick and snip as required. A single off-centre parsley forms a decorative mound of green against which the edible-petalled orange marigolds (Calendula officinalis) pop and the red lettuce shines. We used a round-rooted carrot suited to containers, although crates are usually deep enough for more traditional kinds. We sowed lettuce and carrots direct and thinned them as they grew.

We used

Curled parsley (1x plant in 9cm pot) Calendula officinalis

(3x plug plants) Carrot ‘Baby Round’

(seed sown direct)

Lettuce ‘Lollo Rosso’ (seed sown direct) Vintage wooden apple box available from secondhand or vintage stores, around £25, or £31.95 plus £8.45 postage and packaging from vintagecratesuk.co.uk