Growing Of Vast Variety Of Plants In Your Garden

There is a difference in lettuce just as there is a difference in the taste of apples. As in apples, part of it is probably due to contrast in texture – crisp, soft, smooth, curled, thick, thin. Several kinds used together make a most attractive salad bowl, for in addition to variety in texture there is variety in color, varying from dark green to yellow green, to creamy white center leaves. Some have leaves edged with red, and new varieties available, offer a uniformly deep color as many of their name signifies. The third reason for a wide selection is that the time of maturity varies from 45 to 80 days.

I have grown many varieties in vegetable gardens in the past; I try new varieties every year. Leaf lettuces are my favorite; they are tender; I can use them much sooner, and I get more yield from the space available. In any list, provided of varieties it will usually indicate the days as given on the packet from planting to harvest, but they vary considerably due to conditions. However, the approximate number of days is useful for comparing different kinds.

From the vegetable garden tender beet tops with their touch of red make a good addition to a green salad. Tender turnip tops are usable as the turnips are being thinned. Small leaves of Swiss chard add color and texture, but older leaves are too tough. Celery tops add flavor. Leaves of witloof chicory may be used when very young, but they get too bitter as they mature. Scallions, onions and carrots may occasionally be added to the salad bowl.

Nasturtiums we grow in a window box on the kitchen porch where they can easily be picked to add flavor to the salad.

There is a mint bed, carefully confined, against the basement wall. In a fruit salad it is most welcome, but rarely does it belong in a green salad.

All of these, except as noted, were grown from seeds planted right in the bed. My “rows” are really oblong beds, nine to twelve inches wide by five feet long. I “broadcast” the seeds over the space and cover them lightly with peat moss, then I mark the divisions between varieties by a thick narrow band of peat moss which can be pulled around the plants as they grow. I label each bed.

Growing our own salad bowl just makes it all taste better!

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