'Willpower & sheer idiocy combine in harmony'
Growing your own salad days
Save a fortune on store prices with your own 'bistro' mixes
LEAVES. Bits of hedge. Fancy salad leaves don't go down well with my family, but they're one of the priciest things you buy at the supermarket. It's a shame, as they're so easy to grow, almost all year.
If you're after perfect, full-hearted traditional lettuce, then you're better off growing them in a raised bed or border, but cut-and-come again seed mixes are perfect for containers, so you don't even need a garden.
I have one of Suttons Stacks of Flavour boxes - a concept where you can create your own growing spaces out of treated wooden boxes - and they can be personalised.
Mine's the Speedy Leaves Box, which consists of a crate tray (53cm x 36cm x 9cm), an inner liner and four packets of seeds - Salad Californian Mix, Salad Italian Mix, Salad Oriental Mix and Cos Lettuce Dixter.
The personalisation of the crate is free (20 upper or lower case character limit per slat - complete the panel after you have added to basket).
The tough boxes are made from 12mm FSC sustainably sourced wood and have a three-year protective treatment.
The crates have one, two or three slats, depending on the type of crop you want to grow, and come complete with seeds, or you can buy the boxes on their own.
Prices start at £20. For more details, log on to www.suttons.co.uk.
AS lettuce and related leaves germinate and mature quickly, they're ideal for filling any gaps in you veg (or even flower) beds.
Lettuce should be sown every week or fortnight, so you spread your crop during the growing season - no good having 80 ready at once!
Fit in small rows as earlier crops such as potatoes and summer roots are harvested. A note of caution - lettuce is one of the few crops that appreciate a little bit of shade and slightly cooler temperatures on the hottest days.
Germination is inhibited in high temperatures, so be warned.
Lettuce Red Oak Leaf growing under net.
Catch cropping & successional sowing
I USUALLY try to grow some kind of green stuff in the conservatory over winter, even if it's just enough to add to a sandwich.
There are plenty of cut-and-come-again winter salad mixes out there, but what I find best are pea shoots.
Twinkle is a good variety to go for, with pea-flavoured (obviously) shoots in three weeks in seed trays. They go very well in a pasta dish with smoked salmon.
Rocket is happy to germinate at low temperatures and quite depleted soil. I've used the old tomato grow bags to get a second crop in before the weather gets too cold.
Winter leaf crops
Pea shoots Twinkle; rocket in old grow bags.
THIS winter, I'm trying sweet corn shoots Bodacious from Suttons.
You grow them in a warm, dark place like a cupboard and harvest the bright yellow shoots just as the leaves are about to emerge - about 6-10 days.
Eat straight away to experience their distinct corn flavour, which is intensely sweet and slightly sour at the same time.
Tom the Suttons senior horticultural manager said: "As well as being loaded with flavour, these little shoots are packed full of nutrients to give you a daily vitamin boost"
200 seeds £2.99, visit www.suttons.co.uk.
ALSO worth a go is Marshalls' January Low Temperature Sowing Collection, which will grow in a cold (as low as 5°C) greenhouse.
This salad collection consists of five varieties of top-performing seed, that will produce an early spring harvest of varied cut ‘n’ come again leaves.
The collection includes:Lettuce Little Gem, Mizuna Kyoto, Spinach Amazon, Trophy Lamb’s Lettuce and The Bright & Spicy Salad Mix.
It costs £6.95, saving £2.10 on individual packets (catalogue code 1020-2316), log on to www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk.
Sweet corn shoots
Winter vitamins from sweet corn shoots Bodacious. Picture; Suttons
SOWING TIME: Nov-March indoors; March-Oct outdoors, depending on variety.
HARVESTING TIME: From 3 weeks to 3 months from sowing.
PLANTING DISTANCE: Cut-and-come again leaves n/a; lettuce 25-30cm.
ASPECT AND SOIL: Light shade required in summer; full sun spring/autumn. Rich, well drained, water well.
HARDINESS: Some hardy varieties.
DIFFICULTY: Very easy.
RECOMMENDED VARIETIES: Cut-and come-again - any loose leaf lettuce will work, or buy specific mixes; headed - and Cos Lettuce Dixter, Challenge, Hilde II, All The Year Round, Intred.
Grow at a glance: lettuce/salad leaves
Speedy Leaves salad box.