Dreaming of salad days
Lettuce is a good place to start. The seeds germinate easily and quickly, taking around seven days. They do need protection from frost so sow indoors until April.
Grow them in a partially shaded area as they don’t like full sunshine.
Reasonably good water-retentive soil is best and keep them well watered in hot weather to stop them bolting. This is when the plant switches production from producing leaves to seeds, essentially trying to complete its life cycle.
In lettuce you see this when the plant starts shooting up vertically. This can render leaves bitter and unpleasant.
Loose leaf salads will be ready to harvest first as they don’t form a heart. They are also called ‘cut and come again’ as you just snip off the leaves as required.
If you prefer a head of lettuce, ‘Little Gem’ is a popular choice – you’ll be familiar with it from the supermarkets – and its compact size is suitable for smaller areas. Harvest early in the morning when the leaves are full of moisture.
If you successionally sow seeds, you will have a steady crop throughout the summer. However, if you are sowing lettuce outdoors in the height of summer, they won’t germinate if it gets too hot, say over 25 degrees. In this case allow them to germinate somewhere cooler and then bring them out to their growing spot.
Slugs and snails will love fresh lettuce as much as you do so you need to employ the full armoury to ward them off, especially at the beginning with tender young leaves.
Beetroot is another good starter crop with easy germination and a short growing period. Like lettuce, these can be grown in pots or containers and can be grown successionally to keep a steady supply.
‘Boltardy’ is the most popular seed variety and easy to find. As the name suggests, it has good resistance to bolting. ‘Chioggia’ is the Italian variety with stripey white and pink rings which looks delightful in a salad.
To complete your beetroot salad, top with freshly grown spring onions. These are straightforward as well – choose ‘White Lisbon’ for reliable results. It likes an open sunny position and you could even start a batch off this month indoors.