Many of us were introduced to salad gardens through Peter Rabbit, the young scamp who nibbled forbidden lettuces in Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s book. Mr. McGregor’s tidy rows of lettuces and cabbages accomanying carrots looked so very appealing, we all understood why Peter ignored his mother’s warning and stole under the garden fence for a quick sampling of lettuce and danger.
Long before vitamin pills, simple salads were considered medicine and nourishment. Now that it’s deemed imperative to eat fresh vegetables for good dietary practice, the kitchen and the medicine cabinet have once again merged.
Greens provide vitamins C and A, calcium and iron. The dark leafy greens also provide folic acid–essential for healthy pregnancies–and experts tout their high fiber content as protection against cancer.
The adventure of growing tasty salad gardens begins with educating ourselves on the innumerable variety of salad offerings. To call all leafy salad ingredients “greens” is a misnomer nowadays, for the new dainty lettuces decorate our plates in shades of ruby red and burgundy, as well as chartreuse and forest green.
The leaves come in all shapes: some frilly crinolines tipped with burgundy, some deeply cut Matisse oak leaves.
Bold new tastes
European varieties of leafy vegetables expand your choice of bold new tastes to toss in the salad bowl. Many Asian greens such as mizuna, which enjoy the colder temperatures that butter lettuces abhor, add a spicy taste to salads and can be served wilted or piled up in open-faced sandwiches. The mesclun mixes add a new dimension to salad gardening, with as many as 10 types of lettuce all grown and harvested together.
Some salad greens are distinctly sassy. The mustards of the Brassica group tingle the tongue with a zip that becomes more pronounced the older the plant and the warmer the weather. In mild climates many of the mustards grow all winter long, surviving light frosts and heavy rains to provide salads in the coldest months.
Making a salad garden can be as easy as seeding a salad bowl-size container on your back porch or on an outdoor landing that receives about four hours of sun a day. Container-grown lettuce can decorate decks and porches while providing crisp dinner salads just a step away from the kitchen.
Successive sowings through spring and summer will provide salad bowls of greens into the late autumn.
A range to nibble
Salad greens available as seeds and nursery-grown starts for the home gardener come in a range almost beyond definition in its delicious variety.
Salad greens are not a distinct group in terms of their growing requirements. Some are frost hardy, some not. They have different growing seasons and need various amounts of light and heat.
When laying out your salad garden, plan for the different growing styles of your greens. Cos lettuces, the romaine varieties, form tall columns, so they can be more tightly spaced than head, or cabbage, lettuces, which grow in round clumps. Space cos lettuces 6 inches apart with 6 inches between rows. Space head lettuces 8 inches apart with 8 inches between rows. Cos and head lettuce are usually grown to maturity and the whole head harvested at once.
The loose-leaf lettuces provide an extended harvest, for you keep picking the outer leaves of each plant as you need, until the plant ends the growing period by going to seed.
The weather factor
Many, but not all, salad greens abhor intense summer heat, for it makes them grow flower stalks, and the leaves become bitter and inedible. Choose varieties of salad greens that match your growing season and climate.
Many gardeners prefer to eat their greens as baby greens, beginning to harvest the outer leaves as soon as the plants reach 3 or so inches high. This ensures a good harvest before the greens have a chance to bolt.
Newly available are seed packets of mixed greens, sometimes named mesclun. Mesclun provides a delicious salad bowl mix, often 10 or more different varieties of greens. All are loose-leaf varieties, so sow the seeds in cut-and-come-again beds or in rows, harvesting outer leaves of the plants as they grow.
Nurseries and seed catalogs are providing a greater selection of salad greens every year (see source box).
Don’t forget to experiment with a couple of different types every season, and keep a garden diary of what you have planted, when you planted and how your harvest turns out.
GRILLED GARDEN GREEN SALAD
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Cooking time: 2-10 minutes
Adapted from “Salad Gardens,” by Mimi Luebbermann. The trick here is to add a touch of smokiness to the greens without burning them. Use robust greens such as radicchio, mustard, romaine and kale, which can stand up to grilling.
16 stalks of greens, rinsed, dried, or 4 radicchio or romaine heads sliced in half lengthwise
Olive oil
Vinaigrette:
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt, pepper to taste
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1. Prepare a charcoal or gas grill for direct grilling. Lightly brush the greens with olive oil. When you can hold your hand over the top of the grill and spell “Mississippi,” place the leaves on top of the grill and let them cook 1 to 3 minutes on each side, until slightly browned but not blackened. If you are using the radicchio or romaine sliced in half, grill it for 3 to 5 minutes on each side.
2. Remove the greens from the grill. Coarsely chop into 2- by 2-inch pieces. Toss with 1 tablespoon oil, salt and pepper. Add balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ……………36 Fat………………3.5g Cholesterol….0mg
Sodium……………..3mg Carbohydrates……….1g Protein…….0.5g
OLD-FASHIONED WILTED GREENS WITH BACON AND GARLIC CHIPS
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings as a salad course, 2 as a main course
Adapted from “Salad Gardens,” by Mimi Luebbermann. The popularity of wilted salads faded in the 1970s because of health concerns about the bacon grease in the dressing. However, their reputation has now been restored by wilting the greens in olive oil and adding crisped bits of bacon, cooked separately and drained thoroughly, at the last moment. The salad still has a rich meaty flavor.
4 slices bacon or pancetta,about 4 ounces
6 cloves garlic, sliced 1/4 inch thick
6 to 8 cups rinsed, dried mixed greens, such as young leaves of kale and chard, spinach, arugula, frisee
Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon each: sugar, salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
6 tablespoons olive oil
1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon until brown and crisp, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. When the bacon has cooled, break it into small pieces.
2. Add the garlic slices to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until just golden brown, about 5 minutes. They will continue to cook after you take them off the heat, and if they become too dark, they’ll taste bitter. Take the pan off the heat and remove the garlic from the pan with a slotted spoon. Discard the fat and wipe the pan clean with paper towels.
3. Place the greens in a large salad bowl. Sprinkle with the bacon and garlic.
4. Put vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper into a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well. Add the oil; shake well. Taste for seasonings.
5. Warm the vinaigrette in the pan over medium heat. Toss the greens with the warmed vinaigrette, adjust the seasonings and serve.
Variations: Substitute 2 tablespoons of the oil with bacon fat from Step 1.
For a wilted salad with an Italian flair, use the pancetta (unsmoked Italian bacon available at some deli counters and Italian grocery stores). Omit the garlic and replace it with 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted in the bacon fat. Top salad with shavings of Parmesan cheese serving.
Nutrition information per serving (original version):
Calories………..310 Fat…………….30 g Cholesterol……..15 mg
Sodium……….460 mg Carbohydrates…….5 g Protein…………..7 g
CLASSIC GARDEN SALAD WITH EDIBLE FLOWERS
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings as a salad course, 2 as a main course
Adapted from “Salad Gardens,” by Mimi Luebbermann. Use this classic recipe as a base for your creative impulses. Add crumbled feta or goat cheese, chopped bits of chicken breast or, for an updated Nicoise, hard-boiled eggs, cooked new potatoes, olives and cooled, grilled fish.
Vinaigrette:
2 to 3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar with tarragon
Salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups mixed greens and edible flowers such as viola, calendula, borage or rose petals, rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
1. Whisk together vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly add the oil, continuing to whisk until the oil is incorporated into the vinegar. Taste again for seasoning.
2. Thoroughly toss the vinaigrette with the mixed greens in a large bowl and serve immediately.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories………….190 Fat…………..20 g Cholesterol…….0 mg
Sodium………….20 mg Carbohydrates…..2 g Protein…………1 g
THE CUT-AND-COME-AGAIN GARDEN
The cut-and-come-again technique is popular among many of the small market gardeners who raise specialty lettuce to sell to chefs and at farmers markets. It seems too impossible that trimming lettuce beds like a lawn could possibly produce another wave of greens, but it works.
Equipped with sharp scissors or a knife, you can begin the trim when the lettuce leaves are about 3 inches high. Cut a section of the bed at a time, for it will take two to three weeks for the lettuces to grow back to their original height. Expect about three harvests from each section.
To continue your harvest all season long, replant one section about one month before you expect the last section to end production. Starting from seeds is preferable to buying transplants because they grow as a thick carpet of plants. If you use transplants, space them about 2 inches apart. The cut-and-come-again technique also works well in container salad gardens.
How to do it:
In spring, after the last chance of frost, you can safely sow your lettuces. Prepare and mound the soil in the prepared planting area to form a bed 2 feet by 2 feet and about 6 inches higher than the normal soil level. Sow seeds thickly over the bed; cover them with 1/4 inch of soil. Pat the soil down firmly. Water thoroughly but gently, so the seeds are not disturbed. Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. Once they sprout, fertilize every two weeks with a liquid fertilizer diluted half strength.
When the lettuce leaves are 3 inches long, harvest a section by trimming the leaves back close to the crown, about 1 inch above the soil.
A mesclun garden
Delicious salads have held a place almost of royalty in French cuisine, so gardeners have had high standards to live up to.
French salads are mostly subtle combinations of flavorful small leaves of lettuces–no tomatoes thrown in, no chunks of avocado, but oh those greens. Lots of different varieties add their taste as instruments in an orchestra blend a sound for the whole.
At first imported from Europe, these mixes, called mesclun, have now become the favorites of many of our seed companies. You can plan on your first salad from the harvested baby leaves in 35 to 45 days. Harvest your salad either by picking off the outer leaves from different plants or by using the cut-and-come-again technique.
How to do it:
In spring, after the last chance of frost, you can safely sow your lettuces. Make sure to prepare the soil properly.
For row planting: draw your finger in a line through the prepared moist soil to create a trough 1/4 inch deep. Sow the seeds in the trough, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Cover the trough with soil, and pat down firmly. Space the rows 4 inches apart for a tightly planted area, wider if you prefer.
For bed planting, mound the soil in the prepared planting area to form a square bed that is 2 feet by 2 feet and about 6 inches higher than the normal soil level. Sow seeds evenly over the bed, about 1 inch apart, and cover them with 1/4 inch of soil. Pat the soil down firmly.
Water the planting area thoroughly but gently, so the seeds are not disturbed. Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. As the plants grow, fertilize every two weeks with a liquid fertilizer diluted to half strength. Thin as needed, using the thinnings for salads. For an extended harvest, sow fresh rows or beds every three weeks throughout your planting season.
Sources for salad garden seeds
Most companies test-grow their seeds before they sell them. Although they offer seeds to grow in gardens all over America, they know by experience what grows well in their area. Call the companies closest to you if you need suggestions about salad greens successful in your climate. Some companies charge for their catalog. Call first to check prices and availability.
The Cook’s Garden
Box 535 e Londonderry, Vt. 05148 e 802-824-3400
A superb seed selection of greens plus different types of mesclun mixes and Asian mixes. A must-have catalog for the salad gardener.
DeGiorgi Seed Co.
6022 N St. e Omaha, Neb. 68117-1634 e 800-858-2580
Seeds of alliums, chicories, kale, lettuces and herbs.
Foxhill Farm
443 W. Michigan Ave. e Box 9 e Parma, Mich. 49269 e 517-531-3179
Plants throughout the year. Many varieties of basil and rosemary.
W. Atlee Burpee & Co.
300 Park Ave. e Warminster, Penn. 18974 e 215-674-9633
A standard selection of seeds.
