Organic In The Garden – Growing Young Green Leaves For The Perfect Salad

Growing your own organic salad greens is a great way of ensuring a regular supply of fresh green vegetables from your own home. Many salad leaves can be picked from as short as four weeks after germination and many varieties can be grown throughout the year.

Eating food fresh and raw is the best way of ensuring maximum nutrient value and growing your own organically ensures you know what has been added to the plants during the growth cycle.

There are many vegetables that make excellent salad leaves and are commonly used for this purpose. Some plants like beetroot, spinach and Bok Choy can be picked young then left for the remaining leaves to develop for use in cooked dishes. The leaves of beetroot can also be cooked.

Growing in a hothouse is a perfect option for young salad leaves because they are picked young. A hothouse helps to protect them becoming excessively dirty and protects them from pests and disease and makes picking easy. Punnet holding tubs (usually holds around eight punnets) are ideal for growing young salad greens in.

A good quality organic potting mix should be used or you can make your own potting media.

Some of the best salad greens to grow yourself are:

Rocket
Rocket is a great salad green adding texture and a mild tang to your salad. Rocket grows relatively quickly in most environments.

Beetroot
Beetroot leaves are a good source of nutrients and taste great in salads. They also add colour and a rustic look to typically green salads.

Spinach
A good source of Iron and other Nutrients. Spinach is one of those vegetables often not thought of for use in salads but they are a great addition.

Pea tendrils
I must admit I was surprised to once eat a salad with Pea tendrils. I had never considered them an option or even edible. Pea tendrils are of course the young shoots of peas picked from the tips of the plant. They should not be overlooked for adding a great taste to salads.

Bok Choy
Bok Choy (or Chinese Cabbage) is increasing in popularity around the world. The young leaves of the Bok Choy are excellent in salads. Bok Choy is a member of the Brassica family.

Lettuce
Lettuce forms the base of most salads. Loose-leaf varieties are best for salads with the curly leaved varieties being the best pick. Of course other types of lettuce including healthy varieties are also ideal.

All of these can grow well in a hothouse environment as well as directly in the garden. If the long term intention with beetroot is to harvest it as a root vegetable it should be planted directly in the ground. Young leaves grown in the ground should be given an extra wash before using in salads.

July 28, 2010  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: Growing Organic Vegetables

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