So this is the first year I've really gone after growing salad hard and I'm struggling with the concept of scale. Thus far I've got a couple of 4 foot rows of rocket, a 4 foot row of each of swiss chard and purple pak choi both of which I've planted thick to thin for baby leaves and 2 8 foot rows of lettuce. Now obviously once the lettuce heads up that's a fair amount of leaf but lettuce alone is a bit bland for me and for the other plants it occurs to me you'd need a lot of seed (if not necessarily a lot of space) to get a big amount of baby leaves.
I keep reading articles saying "you only need a windowsill or balcony to grow salad" but for context I eat a big salad every lunch in the working week which equates to 3 of those big supermarket bags of mixed leaves if I go that route. I can't really envisage what I've got in thus far touching the sides of that. Now having said that if I'm spending 3 quid a week on leaves I can get a lot of seed for that.
So I'm curious how much space and how many packets of seed those of you who are self sufficient in salad use but I'd also welcome any tips/thoughts on how I can produce epic quantities of tasty salad.
we do the lettuce plus lots of oriental greens, red mustard, mizuna etc..we leave some to go full size, plus sow every couple of weeks for continual cropping..sometimes run out but hoping to do better this year :)
I sow a large seed tray with mixed salad every two weeks, and when they are cropping size move them into the kitchen for use. Two haircuts later they go back outside to recover and are then reused. I use them mixed with whole lettuce and sprouted seeds as the basis for our salads, you could do several trays and rotate them until you get your quantities right.
I like to sow different sorts of lettuce to ensure plenty - a salad bowl type will go on for ages if you pick carefully, but I like to have a succession of Little Gems, and a big butterhead. I too can't imagine how a windowbox or balcony could provide anything more than a nibble. What about ordinary summer cabbage as well? I grow Golden Acre which is delicious raw. I've got a four-foot row of red sorrel, it's stood for three years now and just keeps on giving. Enjoy!
Your 'cut and come again' type of salad leaves will give you more leaves per square foot of course.
I don't eat as much salad leaf as you, I like cooked veg more, so it's hard for me to guess how much you need.
...so a pretty useless answer from me then!
Quote from: small on May 17, 2010, 22:15:06
I like to sow different sorts of lettuce to ensure plenty - a salad bowl type will go on for ages if you pick carefully, but I like to have a succession of Little Gems, and a big butterhead. I too can't imagine how a windowbox or balcony could provide anything more than a nibble. What about ordinary summer cabbage as well? I grow Golden Acre which is delicious raw. I've got a four-foot row of red sorrel, it's stood for three years now and just keeps on giving. Enjoy!
Thanks for the ideas Deb, small and Manicscouser. I've got a couple of seed trays of red and belleville sorrel on the go as I like the idea of perennial salads. I'm coming to the conclusion a series of trays may be better than rows for some of the salad crops I'm after.....
EDIT: thanks pigeonseed too; I've only recently started eating this much salad so I'm similarly confused.
I have always used a bigger container, about two feet by three feet about 10 inches deep.I think I get better growth with the deeper depth and they don't dry out so fast.I make a mix of seeds in which I include many types of lettuce, plus other greens(look up mesclun on the net for ideas)you can make it to suit yourself but a good choice might be endive, escarole,arugula,chicory,chervil plus a variety of lettuces in different colours and types, you could add kale or oriental greens for texture eg komatsuma,red mustard etc, and corn salad for sweetness .Even spring onion seeds and cress can go in, or you can make a few different mixes to vary the tastes.You can buy the seeds in bigger sizes from some seedsman which cuts down on cost. You can also buy ready mixed mescluns but I prefer to mix my own. I also grow a couple of different cut and come again lettuces .You can let the leaves in the container grow bigger than the bought mixes without losing the baby taste, and if you want you can transplant some of them to grow on as larger lettuce etc, they all look very different so it is easy to choose to transplant.
XX Jeannine
I grow baby romaine in a tall wood tub about two feet wide and just pick the outer leaves. It produces an amazing amount. No slugs since I fill it with a bag of dried manure. It produces continually and in the heat of summer I move it to part shade.
I can't answer your original question as I'm trying to grow much more salad this year as well. And am planning on using every available space and to sow a few seeds every few weeks. What I could suggest which might help is a few spinach plants, so you can pick the leaves young and the plant will still keep going. I'm also growing mizuna to add to my mixes.
And I thought I ate lots of salad ;)
Good luck :)
I would add cress and radish to the suggestions you had from others. Young beetroot leaves/chard leaves too.
An area of 3x3 metres or 10 x 10 ft should be enough for your needs. With chicory and endive, rocket, cress and (up to January here) Chinese cabbage under cloches you should get continuation throughout winter, but need to pick more sparingly. I would also recommend winter radish, which can be grated raw or cooked. Mine lasted well under cloches even this cold winter. And also celery. Well fleeced over winter, celery survives easily (we are in a fairly cold part of the country). We use the leaves as well as the crunchy stalk.
Lastly I would recommend a good supply of spring onions and overwintering spring onions, Welsh onions, garlic chives, salad burnet, lemon balm and parsley to spice up a salad and add interest. If you have a permanent spot in the garden, Babbington's leek is also very useful for salads when little else is about, three-cornered leek (which can be a bit invasive), even the young shoots of scorzonera and salsify can be added to salads in spring if you happen to grow these.
Rocket (go for a large leafed type) you only need to buy once. It is simplicity itself to let a dozen plants go to flower and seed. If you buy a looseleaf lettuce, also leave a few plants for seed, which you can save as well as broadcast as they ripen. Looseleaf lettuce is good for cca (cut and come again) growing anyway. Although personally I crave for a cos later in the year too. Beetroot you are probably growing anyway, ditto chard and it does not hurt the plants if you pick a few leaves for salads. The spring onions will flower and seed readily. You'll see when the seeds are ready, it is obvious and can save them. The expense need not be a lot. However you need to make your growing area a little larger to allow for seed saving, say 12 x 12 ft or 4 x 4 metres. It doesn't have to be expensive to be self-sufficient in salads, but the materials for a couple of large, sturdy cloches and fleece need to be added for year-round growing..
In case you haven't got enough wisdom from everyone here, I can recommend a book by Charles Dowding (no-dig guru) called "Salad leaves for all seasons". Loads of detail, good pictures and even recipes. I got mine free with Nectar points but I think they've taken books off there now. >:(
I also have the book Salad leaves for all Seasons and agree with Caroline its a good book.:)
Caroline I used get books with my Nectar points too . What a shame books are no longer available:(:(